Lab Scale Study of Iron Removal from Industrial Wastewater by Electro-coagulation Process: A Case Study Rashmi Iwanati 1 Former M. Tech. (Environmental Engineering) Student, Department of Civil Engineering & Applied Mechanics, S.G.S.I.T.S, Indore (M.P), India, 452003 Devendra Dohare 2 Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering & Applied Mechanics, S.G.S.I.T.S, Indore (M.P), India, 452003 Sonal Garg 3 Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering & Applied Mechanics, S.G.S.I.T.S, Indore (M.P), India, 452003 Atul Kotiya 4 Scientist, State Pollution Control Board, Indore (M.P.) Abstract: Heavy metals present in industrial wastewater tend to persist for longer time in environment and pose a risk of environmental pollution. So, in order to remove these heavy metals, techniques such as Electro-coagulation (EC) has re- emerged. In this study waste water sample was collected from Tata Steel industry located in Pithampur, [M.P.] and was treated by the process of electro-coagulation for the removal of heavy metal i.e. iron. For this a lab scale model of electro- coagulation was set up. This model consisted of a 3 L capacity plastic jar, Al-Al electrode pair, DC power supply, rheostat, multi-range ammeter and a voltmeter. Firstly, the characteristics of raw wastewater sample were determined in the laboratory, then the effect of various operational parameters (such as pH of sample, applied current intensity and time of operation) on removal efficiency of iron was investigated. In order to determine optimum operating conditions, the analysis of sample was done at different values of pH (i.e. 3, 5 and 7) and varying intensities of current (i.e. 1 A, 1.5 A and 2 A) for a periodical time interval of 15, 30 and 45 minutes. From the result analysis it was observed that maximum iron removal efficiency achieved was 99.71 % at an optimum pH of 7 and 4.44 mA/cm 2 current density after an operating time of 45 min. Keywords: Electro-coagulation Process, Industrial wastewater, Iron Removal 1. INTRODUCTION Rapid Industrialization is one of the major cause for the release of heavy metals in the environment such as Nickel, Chromium, Iron, Zinc, Lead etc. Removal of these heavy metals by treatment of wastewater has become important due to their persistent nature. If not treated and discharged into municipal sewers then it may cause environmental problems. Concerning about pollution, industries come under great pressure to find innovative ideas with environmental regulations. Electro-coagulation (EC) has re-emerged as a viable technology. EC is a broad spectrum treatment technology that removes Total Suspended Solids (TSS), heavy metals, emulsified oils, bacteria and other contaminants from water or wastewater by introducing an electric current through parallel plates constructed of various materials. It uses methods that precipitate large quantities of contaminants from waste in a single operation. Electro-coagulation Process (ECP) provides rapid settling of electro-generated flocs and small amount of sludge production. Thus, it has an advantage of removing smaller colloidal particles with respect to traditional method of chemical coagulation. Also, the capital as well as operating cost of this technology is usually less than that of chemical coagulation. The capital cost can be recovered in less than a year. The plates are generally made of iron, aluminium or stainless steel as these materials are inexpensive and non- toxic. EC consist of several cathode-anode pair that may be connected in polar mode. In this technology, metal cations are released into solution dissolved by metal electrodes. At the same time, beneficial side reaction can remove flocculated material from the solution. However, this can also affect the deposition of salts on the surface of electrode which can lead to deterioration in purification performance after long operation. 1.1 SITE SELECTION Wastewater sample used in this study was collected from Tata Steel industry located in Sector-3, Pithampur road, Indore (M.P.). This industry produces 6 kL of wastewater per day. 2. MATERIALS & METHOD Effect of various parmeters such as pH, current density and contact time on removal of iron was studied and analyzed by electrolysis process. 2.1 EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP The set up of lab scale model of electro-coagulation has been presented in Fig. 1. Plastic container of 3 litres capacity was used to carry out experiments in batch mode. In tis set up two Aluminium electrodes of 120 mm x 10 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT) ISSN: 2278-0181 http://www.ijert.org IJERTV8IS090280 (This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.) Published by : www.ijert.org Vol. 8 Issue 09, September-2019 742