Emerging applications, reactor design and recent advances of electrocoagulation process

Abstract

The ability of electrocoagulation (EC) to treat water and wastewater effectively is well-known. There are several improvements that have been adopted in EC processes to enhance treatability, performance, or reduce environmental impacts. Such improvements include: addition of air and hydrogen peroxide to generate radicals; use of an air cathode to reduce energy consumption; polarity reversal for reducing electrode passivation; and use of renewable energy generation as the source of electrical energy. Each of these improvements exploits different mechanisms to improve the applicability of EC. There are several emerging applications where EC has been shown to be suitable, including microplastics, nanoparticles, emerging contaminants, oil and grease, and disinfection.