Characterization, correlation studies and electrocoagulation treatment of printing industrial effluent with adsorbent (CAC, MWCNTS or GR)

In the present study, characterization, correlation analysis and treatment by Electrocoagulation (EC) process were carried out for the printing effluent samples which were collected from the industry located at south of Madurai near Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu, India. Most of the water quality parameters (WQPs) of printing effluent were found to be higher than the tolerance limit prescribed by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) for the discharge of industrial effluent. EC technique is employed for the treatment of printing effluent with and without adsorbent using iron and aluminium electrodes. The decrease in values of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) was higher in the case of EC with Graphene (GR) and EC with Multi Walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNTs) than EC with Commercial Activated Carbon (CAC) and EC without adsorbent. The decrease in concentration of both anions and cations are relatively higher in EC with GR and EC with MWCNTs than EC with CAC and without adsorbent. It was observed that the percentage removal of cations is relatively lower than the other WQPs. The result of present investigation on printing industrial effluent revealed that generally the EC process with adsorbent is an effective tool for the treatment of industrial effluent.