Improvement of aqueous nitrate removal by using continuous electrocoagulation/electroflotation unit with vertical monopolar electrodes

The present study is to investigate removal of nitrate from water solutions by the Electro-Coagulation-Flotation (ECF) process in continuous operation under different conditions. Experimental results indicated that the maximum nitrate removal was achieved by aluminum-aluminum electrode arrangement as anode-cathode. The increase in current density from 0.4 to 3.2 mA cm−2 increased nitrate removal efficiency from 55 to 96% under optimum conditions of time and pH during the ECF. Continuous operation of the ECF reactor led to an increase of nitrate removal from 37% at a detention time of 10 min-96% at a detention time of 30 min. Mean energy consumption and current efficiency were found to be about 2.66 kWh g−1 NO3− and 160%, respectively.