Sustainable wastewater treatment using electrocoagulation process 1 coupled with powdered activated carbon 2

22 In this research an electrochemical technique in combination with powdered activated carbon 23 (PAC) for the removal of micropollutants by adsorption as an advanced stage purification step 24 from effluents of pilot plant wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). The effluents of sedimentation 25 tank comprised of wastewater plus PAC (WWPAC). The pilot plant mainly consists of two parts; 26 the first one consists of electrocoagulation (EC) reactor and the second consists of electrophoretic 27 deposition (EPD) discs and electroflotation (EF) setup. The electrocoagulation (EC) reactor is a 28 fiber box consisting of two chambers and thirty four plates of one material (either Fe or Al) on the 29 whole in one EC reactor while one cell has seventeen plates. Both entered into the EC reactor for the determination of EC reactor efficacy for the successful 32 accomplishment of EC process at the designed pilot plant for WW treatment. The effect of 33 different operational parameters; PAC dosage (20 mg), electrode nature (Fe and Al), current 34 density (0.34–2.02 A/m 2 ) has been studied to find out the optimum conditions. Sludge volume 35 index (SVI) of the sludge, thermogravimetric (TG), differential thermal analyses (DTA) and 36 particle size distribution (PSD) of the flocs generated after the EC process has also been studied. 37 The turbidity, pH and conductivity of effluents before and after EC treatment has also been carried 38 out. This pilot plant research gave promising results for future work in advance wastewater 39 treatment direction. 40