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Effectiveness of electro-oxidation and electro-Fenton processes in removal of organic matter from high-strength brewery wastewater

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Abstract

In this study, electrochemical processes, namely electro-oxidation (EO) and electro-Fenton (EF), using a boron-doped diamond (BDD) anode were introduced for high-strength brewery wastewater treatment. The emphasis of the work was focused on analyzing (i) performance of EO and integrated EO–EF processes in mineralizing organics from brewery wastewater, (ii) in-situ generation of H2O2 and ·OH radical, and (iii) contribution of the Fenton reaction in oxidizing organic content. The integrated EO–EF process, which involved external iron addition, showed a non-significant effect on treatment in comparison to the EO process. EO treatment alone (i.e., without any external iron dosing) demonstrated high removal of organic matter (∼ 91%). Pre-existing iron in brewery wastewater likely enhanced the EO treatment by incorporating in-situ electro-Fenton. The generation of H2O2 and ·OH exhibited variation due to the addition of iron from external sources. The predominant iron species found in the integrated EO–EF process was Fe(III), which can be attributed as an outcome of the Fenton reaction and the passivation of the electrode surface by iron complexes.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Ministre de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l’Alimentation, Québec (MAPAQ) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada for providing funding supports for this project. We thank Claude Danis and Julien Beaulieu Sabourin (Labatt Brasserie, LaSalle, Quebec) for collecting and shipping the brewery wastewater for this project.

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  1. Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, 1515 Saint-Catherine St W, EV-6.139, Montreal, QC, H3G 2W1, Canada

    Sharmin Sultana, Mahbuboor Rahman Choudhury, Ahmed Refaat Bakr, Nawrin Anwar & Md. Saifur Rahaman

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Correspondence to Md. Saifur Rahaman.

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Sultana, S., Choudhury, M.R., Bakr, A.R. et al. Effectiveness of electro-oxidation and electro-Fenton processes in removal of organic matter from high-strength brewery wastewater. J Appl Electrochem 48, 519–528 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10800-018-1185-3

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