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Bubble size distribution in a laboratory-scale electroflotation study

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Abstract

The performance of electroflotation (EF) is strongly influenced by the size of O2 and H2 bubbles. Therefore, in this study, the bubble sizes are measured in a lab-scale EF cell using a high-speed camera. The mean bubble size is found to vary in the range of 32.7–68.6 μm under different operating conditions. This study shows that the electrode material, current density, water pH, ionic strength, and frother (Tennafroth 250) concentration are important factors in controlling the bubble size. Furthermore, four mathematical distributions (normal, log-normal, Weibull, and gamma distributions) are fitted to the experimental data, among which the log-normal distribution is found to be the best fit based on the lower Anderson-Darling (AD) value.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Mr. Puneet Verma for his help during the research. The authors are also thankful to the Associate Editor of EMAS and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions to improve the manuscript.

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  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Western University, London, ON, Canada

    Raquibul Alam, Julie Q. Shang & Adnan Hossain Khan

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  1. Raquibul Alam
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Correspondence to Raquibul Alam.

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Alam, R., Shang, J.Q. & Khan, A.H. Bubble size distribution in a laboratory-scale electroflotation study. Environ Monit Assess 189, 193 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-017-5888-4

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