Indigenous bio-coagulant assisted electrocoagulation process for the removal of contaminants from brewery wastewater: Performance evaluation and response surface methodology optimization

Wastewater from human activities, particularly from brewery industries, is a significant source of pollution. Large volumes of biodegradable and non-biodegradable substances found in brewery effluent make them suitable for natural coagulant-assisted electrocoagulation. The treatment options available today are highly harmful and not economical. To solve this problem and provide a simple method of treating brewery wastewater, the biocoagulant (Custard apple)-assisted electrocoagulation process was created. This study presents an environmentally friendly way of treating wastewater by combining electrocoagulation with biocoagulant. The approach treats wastewater from breweries with a high organic load and a variable composition. Bio- and electrocoagulation are used in the process to target certain contaminants and when combined the method has high efficiency and is environmentally also friendly. The performance of bio-coagulant-assisted electrocoagulation was studied, considering parameters such as pH, time, current, and bio-coagulant dosage. In each experiment, operating parameters were adjusted and their removal efficiency was evaluated after treatment. The bio-coagulant-assisted electrocoagulation process removed COD (99.01 %), BOD (99.09 %), TDS (99.02 %), and) at an ideal pH of 7, a current of 0.5 A, a time of 40 min, and power consumed (0.54kwh/m³) with a constant dose of 0.75 g/l NaCl as electrolytes. The study found that Indigenous bio-coagulant (Custard apple)-assisted electrocoagulation processes were effective and efficient in removing pollutants from brewery wastewater. In the process of treatment operating factors have a high effect on the performance of the method. The parameters were customized using Response Surface Methodology (RSM), and the dependent variable's value was determined through regression analysis with a design expert.