Novel Electrode Design for Removing CNG Lubricant from Wastewater by Using Electrocoagulation

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Minia University, Egypt

2 Chemical Engineering & Pilot Plant Department, National Research Center, Cairo, Egypt

Abstract

Lube oil centers produce a huge quantity of oily wastewaters in Egypt. Compressed natural gas lubricant (CNG) and stations are the main source of oily wastewater. A huge quantity of oily wastewater formed during the change of the engine lubricant. The treatment of such oily wastewater which contains CNG lubricant by Electrocoagulation (EC) with a novel electrode design is investigated. The finely dispersed oil removal from oil/water emulsions by EC using electrolytic cell with novel Al horizontal electrodes is studied. The cell is consisted mainly of a cylindrical plastic container (25 cm in height and 10 cm diameter), a vertical Al sheet as cathode placed at the bottom of the cell and rotating disc as anode. The cathode-anode apart was fixed at a distance of 1.5 cm. Different variables are studied such as the rotational speed of anode (100 - 500 rpm), NaCl dose as an electrolyte, pH, oil emulsion concentration, voltage and time applied. The maximum removal obtained is 87.5% at the condition were pH= 7.4, initial oil concentration= 500 ppm, rpm= 480 and 0.5% NaCl). Although the present data were obtained using a batch cell, these data can be utilized in practice to operate a continuous cell provided that the flowrate of CNG Lubricant wastewater to the cell is extremely low.

Keywords

Main Subjects