COMBINED ELECTRO-FENTON AND ANODIC OXIDATION PROCESSES FOR THE REMOVAL OF POLYACRYLAMIDE (PAM) FROM WASTEWATER AND OPTIMIZATION USING RESPONSE SURFACE METHODOLOGY (RSM)

Abstract

This work investigated the removal of polyacrylamide (PAM) from wastewater by anodic oxidation process coupled with Electro-Fenton process. The effect of some key optional parameters, including Fe2+ dosage, the distance between electrodes, initial pH and current density, on removal efficiency was examined. To get further insight into this progress, Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was used to optimize various optional parameters and according to the results of regression analysis, the second-order polynomial fitting model was significant. Under the conditions of a current density of 35 mA/cm(2), a Fe2+ dosage of 0.205 mM, a distance between the electrodes of 5 cm and a pH value of 3.9, the COD removal was 95.35% in 86.25 min, close to the predicted value of 94.99%. Thus, it was proved that coupling anodic oxidation process with Electro-Fenton process was feasible to degrade PAM from wastewater and that RSM was feasible to optimize and predict the effect of operational parameters.