Organic matter and heavy metal removals from complexed metal plating effluent by the combined electrocoagulation/Fenton process

In the present study, the treatment of metal plating wastewater containing complexed metals originating from the nickel and zinc plating process by electrocoagulation (EC) using stainless steel electrodes was explored. In order to improve the organic matter removal efficiency, the effect of H ₂O₂ addition to the electrocoagulation (the combined EC/Fenton process) application was investigated. For this purpose, a wide range of H₂O₂ concentrations varying between 15 and 230 mM was tested. All EC and EC/Fenton processes were performed at an initial pH of 2.6 and at an optimized current density of 22 mA/cm². Although up to 30 mM H₂O₂ addition improved the EC process performance in terms of organic matter abatement, the highest COD and TOC removal efficiencies were obtained for the combined EC/Fenton process in the presence of 20 mM H ₂O₂. Nickel and zinc were completely removed for all runs tested in the present study after pH adjustments. At the optimized operation conditions, the combined EC/Fenton process proved to be an alternative treatment method for the improvement of organic matter reduction as well as complexed metal removal from metal plating industry wastewater.