Removal of heavy metals and hardness from groundwater via electro-coagulation method

Abstract

Groundwater makes up an important part of global freshwater resources, though it is often threatened by overuse of natural resources along with abundant production of wastes in modern society. This study aims to investigate the removal of three heavy metals including nickel, cadmium, and lead from groundwater via electrocoagulation, a suitable method for treatment of water-soluble compounds, dealing with the impact of this process on three major groundwater parameters, namely TDS (Total Dissolved Solid), TH, and EC at a laboratory scale. The experiments have been performed using four aluminum electrodes. In this research, the efficiency of contaminants removal and the parameters of interest have been investigated under several conditions such as the distance among the electrodes, potential difference among the electrodes, and different initial concentrations of heavy metals with a detention time of 20 min. Afterwards both results and observations have been analyzed, using diagrams and data tables. Results indicate that this method has had no significant effect on TDS and EC; however, in case of TH, the removal has increased by up to 29.17%. As for the heavy metals, all three contaminants have achieved an increase of the potential difference to 15 V, a decrease in the distance among the electrodes to 2.2 cm, as well as a removal of over 90%. Furthermore, result analysis shows that this process has had a better removal efficiency, concerning lead.