Kinetics of electro-oxidation of ammonia-N, nitrites and COD from a recirculating aquaculture saline water system using BDD anodes

The viability of the electro-oxidation technology provided with boron doped diamond (BDD) electrodes for the treatment and reuse of the seawater used in a Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS) was evaluated in this work.The influence of the applied current density (5–50 A m−2) in the removal of Total Ammonia Nitrogen (TAN), nitrite and chemical oxygen demand (COD) was analyzed observing that complete TAN removal together with important reductions of the other considered contaminants could be achieved, thus meeting the requirements for reuse of seawater in RAS systems.TAN removal, mainly due to an indirect oxidation mechanism was described by a second order kinetics while COD and nitrite removal followed zero-th order kinetics. The values of the kinetic constants for the anodic oxidation of each compound were obtained as a function of the applied current density (kTAN = 7.86 × 10−5·exp(6.30 × 10−2 J); kNO2kNO2 = 3.43 × 10−2 J; kCOD = 1.35 × 10−2 J). The formation of free chlorine and oxidation by-products, i.e., trihalomethanes (THMs) was followed along the electro-oxidation process. Although a maximum concentration of 1.7 mg l−1 of total trihalomethanes was detected an integrated process combining electrochemical oxidation in order to eliminate TAN, nitrite and COD and adsorption onto activated carbon to remove the residual chlorine and THMs is proposed, as an efficient alternative to treat and reuse the seawater in fish culture systems. Finally, the energy consumption of the treatment has been evaluated.