Removal of bacterial pollution from municipal wastewater using electrocoagulation technique

Abstract

Abstract Bacterial pollution in water sources is one of the most dangerous forms of water pollution because the bacterial can breed in the aqueous media, which could result in the pollution of the whole water body. Besides, bacterial pollution possesses severe health problems. Thus, several sterilization methods were used for the removal of bacterial cells from water, such as filtration and chemical additives. However, the majority of these methods are either slow, such as filtration methods, or unsafe, such as chemical additives. Electrocoagulation (EC) has recently brought a good deal of attention for bacterial pollution in water and wastewater because it is environmentally safe and it has low a relatively low operating cost. In this research, the effects of the current density on the ability of the aluminium-based EC unit (Al-EC) for the deactivation of bacterial pollution (E. coli as a case study) in municipal wastewater have been investigated at three 0.5, 1, and 2 mA/cm2. The obtained results proved that increasing the current density was useful for E. coli removal, and the best deactivation (85.6%) was achieved at a current density of 2 mA/cm2.