Electrochemical treatment of anaerobic digestion effluent using a Ti/Pt–IrO2 electrode

Electrochemical treatment of the anaerobic digestion effluents using a Ti/Pt–IrO2 electrode was evaluated in this study. The effects of electric current, NaCl dosage, and initial pH on ammonia, nitrate, total organic carbon (TOC), inorganic carbon (IC), final pH, and turbidity variations were studied in a series of batch experiments. It was found that the electric current and NaCl dosage had a considerably larger effect on the oxidization of ammonia; this was less for the effect of the initial pH. In addition, electroflotation was the main mechanism for turbidity, TOC, and IC removals. Further, the IC removal was mainly affected by the pH of wastewater. The electrochemical treatment using Ti/Pt–IrO2 electrode without pretreatment was feasible for the anaerobic digestion effluent.