Study of electrochemical oxidation of textile dyes reactives blue 19 and black 5 using boron-doped diamond electrodes in a filter-press flow reactor

Abstract

Textile wastewater is considered one of the most problematic wastewater mainly because it presents organic dyes that are resistant to degradation. Therefore when these dyes are directly discharged into the environment without adequate treatment they may remain in the environment for a long time. Furthermore they can cause environmental and aesthetic problems and especially they might cause health risk due to the toxic effects that some dyes have. In this context, the main goal of this research project is to study the degradation of two different textile dyes Reactives Blue 19 and Black 5 via direct oxidation by hydroxyl radical, formed on boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrode surface through the oxidation of water using a filter-press flow reactor. This project will be developed at the University of Southampton under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Carlos Ponce de León Albarrán. The hydrodynamics behavior of the filter-press flow reactor will be characterized to determine the diffusion limiting current and the mass transfer coefficient, which is the most important parameter to reach the scale-up procedure for filter-press electrochemical reactors. In order to achieve the best condition of the electrochemical degradation of dyes RB-19 and RB-5 using filter-press flow reactor and BDD films as anode, the influence of several variables will be studied as current density, initial concentration of the dyes, and the flow under different regimes. At the final of the research project we expect to obtain the best results of the degradation of dyes, achieving total color removal of the pollutant and mineralization, associated with lower treatment costs. (AU)