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Electrochemical wastewater treatment: influence of the type of carbon and of nitrogen on the organic load removal

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Abstract

Boron-doped diamond (BDD) and Ti/Pt/PbO2 anodes were utilized to perform the electrodegradation of synthetic samples containing humic acid in the presence of different organic and inorganic carbon-containing and nitrogen-containing compounds. The influence of the chloride ion in the degradation process of the different synthetic samples was also assessed. The results showed that the anodic oxidation process can efficiently degrade recalcitrant compounds such as humic acid. The presence of carbonate in solution enhances the nitrogen removal, whereas it hinders the oxidation of the organic compounds. When organic nitrogen is present, it is converted to NH4 +, which in turn is oxidized to nitrate and to volatile nitrogen compounds. Hydroxyl radicals are more prone to oxidize the organic nitrogen than the ammonium nitrogen. The presence of chloride enhances the organic matter and nitrogen removal rates, BDD being the anode material that yields the highest removals.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support received from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, FCT, for the financing of the FibEnTech Research Unit, project Pest-OE/CTM/UI0195/2014, and for the grant awarded to Annabel Fernandes, SFRH/BPD/103615/2014.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. FibEnTech/MTP Unit and Department of Chemistry, University of Beira Interior, 6201-001, Covilhã, Portugal

    Annabel Fernandes, João Coelho, Lurdes Ciríaco, Maria José Pacheco & Ana Lopes

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  1. Annabel Fernandes
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  2. João Coelho
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  3. Lurdes Ciríaco
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  4. Maria José Pacheco
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  5. Ana Lopes
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Annabel Fernandes.

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Responsible editor: Bingcai Pan

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Fig. S1

Variation with time of DIC, relative TDN and nitrite concentration during the electrodegradation experiments performed using (a,c,e) BDD and (b,d,f) Ti/Pt/PbO2 anodes (TIF 20501 kb)

Fig. S2

Variation with time of DIC, relative TDN and nitrite concentration during the electrodegradation experiments performed using (a,c,e) BDD and (b,d,f) Ti/Pt/PbO2 anodes in the presence of chloride initial concentration of 4.5 g L-1 (TIF 20345 kb)

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Fernandes, A., Coelho, J., Ciríaco, L. et al. Electrochemical wastewater treatment: influence of the type of carbon and of nitrogen on the organic load removal. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 24614–24623 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6851-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6851-6

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