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Treatment of synthetic urine by electrochemical oxidation using conductive-diamond anodes

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Abstract

In this work, the electrochemical oxidation of synthetic urine by anodic oxidation using boron-doped diamond as anode and stainless steel as cathode was investigated. Results show that complete depletion of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total organic carbon (TOC) can be attained regardless of the current density applied in the range 20–100 mA cm−2. Oxalic and oxamic acids, and, in lower concentrations, creatol and guanidine were identified as the main intermediates. Chloride ions play a very important role as mediators and contribute not only to obtain a high efficiency in the removal of the organics but also to obtain an efficient removal of nitrogen by the transformation of the various raw nitrogen species into gaseous nitrogen through chloramine formation. The main drawback of the technology is the formation of chlorates and perchlorates as final chlorine products. The increase of current density from 20 to 60 mA cm−2 led to an increase in the rate of COD and TOC removals although the process becomes less efficient in terms of energy consumption (removals of COD and TOC after applying 18 Ah dm−3 were 93.94 and 94.94 %, respectively, at 20 mA cm−2 and 89.17 and 86.72 %, respectively, at 60 mA cm−2). The most efficient conditions are low current densities and high temperature reaching total mineralization at an applied charge as low as 20 kAh m−3. This result confirmed that the electrolysis using diamond anodes is a very interesting technology for the treatment of urine.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge University of Gabes (Tunisia) for providing partial financial support to accomplish this research work. This work was also supported by the Spanish government through project CTM2013-45612-R. Financial support of the Spanish government and EU through project FEDER 2007–2013 PP201010 (Planta Piloto de Estación de Estación de Regeneración de Aguas Depuradas) is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences of Gabes, University of Gabes, Gabes, Tunisia

    Sondos Dbira & Ahmed Bedoui

  2. Department of Chemistry and Earth Sciences, College of Arts and Science, Qatar University, 2713, Doha, Qatar

    Nasr Bensalah

  3. Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Chemical Sciences & Technologies, Universidad de Castilla La Mancha, Edificio Enrique Costa, Campus Universitario s/n, 13071, Ciudad Real, Spain

    Pablo Cañizares & Manuel A. Rodrigo

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  1. Sondos Dbira
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  2. Nasr Bensalah
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  3. Ahmed Bedoui
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  4. Pablo Cañizares
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  5. Manuel A. Rodrigo
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Correspondence to Manuel A. Rodrigo.

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Responsible editor: Bingcai Pan

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Dbira, S., Bensalah, N., Bedoui, A. et al. Treatment of synthetic urine by electrochemical oxidation using conductive-diamond anodes. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 6176–6184 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3831-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3831-6

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