Pulse electro-coagulation application in treating dibutyl phthalate wastewater

Pulse electro-coagulation (PEC) was applied to treat plastic factory wastewater in this study. One representative plasticizer molecule was chosen for the synthetic wastewater: dibutyl phthalate (DBP). Experiments demonstrated that PEC exhibits superior economic efficiency and removal efficiency compared to traditional electro-coagulation in wastewater treatment. Experimental data also indicated that at a given current density, compared with the aluminum electrode, the iron electrode could more efficiently remove DBP from wastewater. With an initial pH of 8–9, the required energy was 2.5 kWh m⁻³ for 75% DBP removal in the case of iron as the anode type. In general, the pollutants have been successfully reduced to environmentally acceptable levels under the following operating conditions: iron as the anode type, interelectrode distance of 10 mm, duty cycle of 0.6, pH of 8–9 and current density of 15 mA cm⁻² for PEC time >15 min.