Decolorization and COD reduction of UASB pretreated poultry manure wastewater by electrocoagulation process: A post-treatment study

The performance of electrocoagulation (EC) technique for decolorization and chemical oxygen demand (COD) reduction of anaerobically pretreated poultry manure wastewater was investigated in a laboratory batch study. Two identical 15.7-L up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors were first run under various organic and hydraulic loading conditions for 216 days. Effects of operating parameters such as type of sacrificial electrode material, time of electrolysis, current density, initial pH, and electrolyte concentration were further studied to optimize conditions for the post-treatment of UASB pretreated poultry manure wastewater. Preliminary tests conducted with two types of sacrificial electrodes (Al and Fe) resulted that Al electrodes were found to be more effective for both COD and color removals than Fe electrodes. The subsequent EC tests performed with Al electrodes showed that optimal operating conditions were determined to be an initial pH of 5.0, a current density of 15 mA/cm2, and an electrolysis time of 20 min. The results indicated that under the optimal conditions, about 90% of COD and 92% of residual color could be effectively removed from the UASB effluent with the further contribution of the EC technology used as a post-treatment unit. In this study, the possible acute toxicity of the EC effluent was also evaluated by a static bioassay test procedure using guppy fish (Lebistes reticulatus). Findings of this study clearly indicated that incorporation of a toxicological test into conventional physicochemical analyses provided a better evaluation of final discharge characteristics.