211180 Challenges and Opportunities of Electrocoagulation for Refinery Application: Case Study with Chicken Processing Plant Water and Fleet Wash Water

Wednesday, March 16, 2011: 9:15 AM
Burnham (Hyatt Regency Chicago)
Eric Peterson1, Jewel Andrew Gomes2, David L. Cocke2, Hector Moreno3, Morgan Reed4, Joe W. Hutchins5, Daniel Atambo6 and Kamol Kanti Das7, (1)Scandpower Inc., a member of the Lloyd's Register Group, Houston, TX, (2)Dan F. Smith Department of Chemical Engineering, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX, (3)Chemical Engineering, Instituto Tecnologico de la Laguna, Torreon, Mexico, (4)Drilling Fluids Gulf of Mexico, Baker-Hughes, TX, (5)Process Improvement and Optimization, Lake Charles, LA, (6)Dallas/Fort Worth Regional Office, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Fort Worth, TX, (7)Agronomy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN

Due to the limited clean water resources of our planet, an urgent need exists for efficient technological development to treat wastewater for re-use. Several water treatment methods and instruments are currently available that partially achieve this goal. The cost and treatment efficiencies depend on the instrument type used and their application. Of these techniques, electrochemical methods, such as electrocoagulation (EC), can still provide the most efficient and economic service. EC works through in-situ formation of coagulants when anodes (e.g., iron, aluminum, copper, or titanium) are sacrificed electrochemically. Generally, direct current is applied through the EC cell. Research has been performed over decades using this process to successfully treat multiple types of wastewater. In this presentation, our experimental results on EC-treatment of chicken processing plant water and fleet wash water demonstrate how this may be accomplished. The floc produced during treatment was also examined using common materials characterization techniques (e.g., FTIR, XRD, and SEM-EDS). This work also illuminates challenges and opportunities necessary to make this technique viable for industrial application.

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See more of this Session: Environmental and Water Solutions
See more of this Group/Topical: Topical 7: 14th Topical on Refinery Processing