Electrochemical removal of chromium from wastewater by using carbon aerogel electrodes

A study has been carried out to determine the feasibility of electrochemical removal of chromium ions from industrial wastewater using carbon aerogel electrodes. In this work the effect of key variables including pH (2-7), concentration 2-8 (mg/l), and charge 0.3-1.3 (A h) was determined. The metal ion removal was significantly increased at reduced pH and high charge conditions. The metal concentration in the wastewater can be reduced by 98.5% under high charge (0.8 A h) and acidic conditions (pH 2). The effect of the independent parameters-pH, effluent concentration and charge on the percentage removal was depicted by a quadratic equation obtained using Box-Behnken model. The regression analysis gave a R-2 value of 0.9469 shows a close fit between the experimental results and the model predictions. The model was further used to optimise the parameters to maximise the percentage Cr-removal to more than 98%. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.