Evaluation of electrocatalytic activity Ti and Al as anodes for the remediation of textile dyeing effluent

One of the industries that uses huge volumes of water is the textile sector, which generates a lot of wastewaters. Electrocoagulation (EC), an environmentally friendly method, has been utilized to remediate textile dyeing effluent. The goal of this work is to compare the catalytic activity of Ti with Al using two sets of experiments (Al-Ti, Ti-Al), one of which contains Al as an anode and in the other Ti as an anode to treat textile dyeing effluent to reduce operating costs of the process as Ti electrode undergoes uniform dissolution with less energy consumption compared to Al. The maximum color removal efficiency (CRE) of 97.13% and 96.8% was obtained while using Al-Ti and Ti-Al electrodes. The removal efficiency of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Total Suspended Solids (TSS), and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) were also found to be comparable with both electrodes. The FTIR analysis of treated water demonstrated that the pollutant removal was similar in both electrodes. The generation of hydroxides during the EC process is demonstrated by XPS examination of sludge, with Al appearing as Al2p in the +3-oxidation state and Ti appearing as Ti2p1/2 and Ti2p3/2 in the +4-oxidation state. The operating cost calculated for Al-Ti and Ti-Al electrodes was found to be 2.90 US and 0.87 US. The difference in operating cost between these two electrodes was found to be 70%. The energy, electrode consumption, and operating cost for the Al-Ti electrode were found to be high due to its high dissolution.