DETERMINING THE EFFECT OF INTER-ELECTRODE DISTANCE AND PH VALUE OF ELECTROLYTE ON THE REMOVAL OF COPPER IONS FROM WASTEWATER IN AN ELECTROCHEMICAL REACTOR

Purification of wastewater is crucial for human health and for preventing groundwater contamination. Removing copper ions from wastewater produced by industrial facilities using electrodeposition is an effective method for eliminating heavy metals. This study aimed to investigate the effects of the inter-electrode distance and the pH of the electrolyte on the k in electrodeposition, which simulates the electrocoagulation removal of copper from artificial wastewater. The experimental study on copper removal was conducted in a jacketed PVC reactor, stirred using a four-bladed Rushton turbine. The removal of copper, an electrochemical mass transfer process with diffusion-controlled, was performed under limiting current conditions. The electrodeposition technique used in this study combines elements of ELDCT and NST. The experimental results indicate that k values increased with decreasing the anode-cathode distance and the decrease in pH of the electrolyte. Because the change in the pH affected the concentration of Cu2+ ions, k values were also changed. Thus, the copper removal rate from the solution on the cathode was decreased. For this process, the Sherwood (Sh) correlation grew depending on the parameters of inter-elecrode distance and pH. The following equation gave this correlation: Sh=460〖*(R⁄d)〗^(-0.51) 〖*pH〗^(-0.63). According to experimental results, k decreased from 4.65.10-6 m/s to 2.70.10-6 m/s linearly as inter-electrode distance increased from 4.3cm to 8cm. Besides, k decreased exponentially from 5.6.10-6 m/s to 4.10-6 m/s as pH changed from 0.53 to 1.42. ).