Use of Electrochemical Technique for the Removal of Lead and Nickel from Modelled Aqueous Solution

Abstract: Groundwater is the purest form of water available in nature, but due to excessive pumping of groundwater, the water table is lowered every year. As a result, the concentrations of ions like lead, nickel etc. are increasing. Such action also triggers the salinity oozing from the rocks. The geogenic contamination due to ions/minerals from the rocks are surfacing and creating major challenges for water treatment companies. Lead and nickel concentrations in groundwater are the major problems worldwide, causing health issues to the population that uses this water for their consumption. In this work, a laboratory scale electro-chemical reactor is being designed using glass, aluminum sheets, iron sheets using which removal capacity of lead and nickel were tested under different conditions, namely operational conditions, electrode orientation and water chemistry. In the reactor, the optimum conditions for nickel removal were found to be as, electrode arrangement: (+) Al-Fe-Al-Fe (-), reaction time 30 minutes, applied voltage 24V, initial ion concentration 8 mg/L, initial pH: 7 and for lead removal, electrode arrangement was as (+) Al-Fe-Al-Fe (-), reaction time 30 minutes, applied voltage 24V, initial concentration as 700 μg/L, and initial pH as 7. Removal capacities obtained from the designed reactor are as follows: Lead removal as 93% and Nickel removal as 89%.