Decolorisation of aqueous reactive dye Remazol Red 3B by electrocoagulation

Abstract

The present study demonstrated the applicability of the electrocoagulation method for the removal of reactive dye, Remazol Red 3B, in a batch study. Iron electrode material was used as a sacrificial electrode in monopolar parallel mode in this study. The effects of the initial pH, current density, conductivity, initial concentration of dye and electrolysis time on the removal of Remazol Red 3B were investigated to determine optimum operating conditions. High decolorisation efficiency (> 99%) for Remazol Red 3B dye solution was obtained with optimal value of process parameters, such as 15 mA cm-2 of current density, 10 min of electrolysis time, pH 6 and 500 mg l-1 dye concentration. The energy consumption, electrode consumption and operating costs under optimum operating conditions were calculated as 3.3 kW h kg dye-1, 1.2 kg Fe kg dye-1 and 0.6 euro m-3, respectively.