Investigation of electrode passivation during electrocoagulation treatment with aluminum electrodes for high silica content produced water.

One of the main challenges for the implementation of electrocoagulation (EC) in water treatment are fouling and passivation of the electrodes, especially for applications with high contaminant concentrations. For the first time, we investigated in this study the process of fouling mitigation by polarity reversal during the EC treatment of boiler blowdown water from oil-sands produced water, characterized by high silica concentrations (0.5-4 g L-1). This effluent is typically obtained from an evaporative desalination process in oil production industries. Potentiodynamic characterisation was used to study the impact of passivation on the anode dissolution. Although a charge loading of 4,800 C L-1 was found to remove about 98% of silica from a 1 L batch of 4 g L-1 Si solution, fouling reduced the performance significantly to about 40% in consecutive cycles of direct current EC (DC-EC) treatment. Periodic polarity reversal (PR) was found to reduce the amount of electrode fouling. Decreasing the polarity period from 60 to 10 s led to the formation of a soft powdery fouling layer that was easily removed from the electrodes. In contrast, with DC operation, a hard scale deposit was observed. The presence of organics in the field samples did not significantly affect the Si removal, and organics with high levels of oxygen and sulfate groups were preferentially removed. Detailed electrochemical and economic investigations suggest that the process operating at 85 °C achieves 95% silica removal (from an initial concentration of 481 mg L-1) with an electrical energy requirement of 0.52 kWh m-3, based on a charge loading of 1,200 C L-1, an inter-electrode gap of 1.8 cm and a current density of 16 mA cm-2.

How does periodic polarity reversal affect the faradaic efficiency and electrode fouling during iron electrocoagulation?

Electrocoagulation (EC) is a promising electrochemical water treatment technology. However, a major challenge to sustaining effective long-term EC operation is controlling the precipitation of materials on the electrodes, commonly referred to as fouling. Periodically reversing electrode polarity has been suggested as an in-situ fouling mitigation strategy and is often implemented in EC field applications. However, the utility of this approach has not been investigated in detail. In this study, the effect of polarity reversal (PR) on the performance of EC using iron electrodes was examined under different water chemistry conditions and at a range of reversal frequencies. It was observed that the faradaic efficiency in PR-EC was always lower than that in the EC systems operated with a direct current (i.e., DC-EC). It was also observed that the faradaic efficiency progressively decreased as the current reversal frequency increased, with the faradaic efficiency dropping as low as 10% when the PR interval was 0.5 min. Results from fouling layer, chronopotentiometric, and cyclic voltammetric investigations indicated that the decrease in the faradaic efficiency was caused by (i) increased electrode fouling by iron precipitates and (ii) electrochemical side reactions at the electrode-electrolyte interface. The extent of these effects was dependent on the solution chemistry; oxyanions and sulfide were found to be particularly detrimental to the performance of PR-EC, causing severe electrode fouling while decreasing the faradaic efficiency. Fouling could be mitigated by increasing the solution convection rate, resulting in a shear on the electrode surface that removed iron and other electrochemically reactive species from the electrodes.

Electrode passivation, faradaic efficiency, and performance enhancement strategies in electrocoagulation-a review.

Treating water and wastewater is energy-intensive, and traditional methods that require large amounts of chemicals are often still used. Electrocoagulation (EC), an electrochemical treatment technology, has been proposed as a more economically and environmentally sustainable alternative. In EC, sacrificial metal electrodes are used to produce coagulant in-situ, which offers many benefits over conventional chemical coagulation. However, material precipitation on the electrodes during long term operation induces a passivating effect that decreases treatment performance and increases power requirements. Overcoming this problem is considered to be the greatest challenge facing the development of EC. In this critical review, the studies that have examined the nature of electrode passivation, and its effect on treatment performance are considered. A fundamental approach is used to examine the association between passivation and faradaic efficiency, a surrogate for EC performance. In addition, the strategies that have been proposed to remove or avoid passivation are reviewed, including aggressive ion addition, AC current operation, polarity reversal, ultrasonication, and mechanical cleaning of the electrodes. It is concluded that the success of implementing each method is dependent on critical operating parameters, and careful consideration should be taken when designing an EC system based on the phenomena discussed in this article. In conclusion, this review provides insight into passivation mechanisms, delivers guidelines for sustaining high treatment performance, and offers an outlook for the future development of EC.