Electrochemical techniques have proven to be useful for the treatment of wastewater and for the desalination of brackish water. Most of the wastewater generated in important industrial processes can be treated by biological purification plants. Nevertheless, several industrial effluents have high COD and/or suspended solid values, or they contain organic compounds like phenols, dyes, tensoactives, etc., which may be toxic and prevent their direct treatment in a biological plant. Our research group has developed systems for the full treatment of an industrial wastewater based on electrochemical techniques, such as Electrocoagulation, Electrooxidation and Electrodialysis. These techniques can be applied individually or as a combination of them, in order to give customized solutions. Electrochemical systems are usually powered by conventional electric energy, but they can also be powered by a renewable energy source, such as Photovoltaic (PV) energy. It is interesting to note that PV modules produce direct current, which can be used directly by the Electrochemical systems. This fact means that the coupled systems developed by our research group work without need of batteries or inverter modules and costs in equipment and maintenance are lower than systems powered with other energy sources or connected to batteries. The advantages of the use of this type of energy are that it is not pollutant - once the solar panels have been produced-, it is silent, abundant, decentralized, free and long-life. These systems are appropriate for industrial applications, in order to treat a contaminated effluent, but also for applications in isolated locations with lack of electric grid, where it is not necessary to treat or produce water continuously. The low maintenance cost of these systems is another positive factor.

Treatment of industrial wastewater by electochemical techniques: Systems powered by photovoltaic energy

250th National Meeting (2015)

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