Authors: Jothinathan Lakshmi Ganapathy Sozhan Subramanyan Vasudevan
Publish Date: 2012/06/27
Volume: 20, Issue: 4, Pages: 2184-2192
Abstract
The present study provides an optimization of electrocoagulation process for the recovery of hydrogen and removal of nitrate from water In doing so the thermodynamic adsorption isotherm and kinetic studies were also carried out Aluminum alloy of size 2 dm2 was used as anode and as cathode To optimize the maximum removal efficiency different parameters like effect of initial concentration effect of temperature pH and effect of current density were studied The results show that a significant amount of hydrogen can be generated by this process during the removal of nitrate from water The energy yield calculated from the hydrogen generated is 33778 kWh/m3 The results also showed that the maximum removal efficiency of 959 was achieved at a current density of 025 A/dm2 at a pH of 70 The adsorption process followed secondorder kinetics model The adsorption of NO 3 − preferably fitting the Langmuir adsorption isotherm suggests monolayer coverage of adsorbed molecules Thermodynamic studies showed that adsorption was exothermic and spontaneous in nature The energy yield of generated hydrogen was ~54 of the electrical energy demand of the electrocoagulation process With the reduction of the net energy demand electrocoagulation may become a useful technology to treat water associated with power production The aluminum hydroxide generated in the cell removes the nitrate present in the water and reduced it to a permissible level making the water drinkableThe financial support for this research 3800W1 from IndoFrench Centre for the Promotion of Advanced Research IFCPAR New Delhi India is gratefully acknowledged The authors are also grateful to the director of Central Electrochemical Research Institute Karaikudi for publishing this article
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