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Published February 18, 2014 | Supplemental Material
Journal Article Open

Effects of Anodic Potential and Chloride Ion on Overall Reactivity in Electrochemical Reactors Designed for Solar-Powered Wastewater Treatment

Abstract

We have investigated electrochemical treatment of real domestic wastewater coupled with simultaneous production of molecular H2 as useful byproduct. The electrolysis cells employ multilayer semiconductor anodes with electroactive bismuth-doped TiO_2 functionalities and stainless steel cathodes. DC-powered laboratory-scale electrolysis experiments were performed under static anodic potentials (+2.2 or +3.0 V NHE) using domestic wastewater samples, with added chloride ion in variable concentrations. Greater than 95% reductions in chemical oxygen demand (COD) and ammonium ion were achieved within 6 h. In addition, we experimentally determined a decreasing overall reactivity of reactive chlorine species toward COD with an increasing chloride ion concentration under chlorine radicals (Cl·, Cl2–·) generation at +3.0 V NHE. The current efficiency for COD removal was 12% with the lowest specific energy consumption of 96 kWh kgCOD–1 at the cell voltage of near 4 V in 50 mM chloride. The current efficiency and energy efficiency for H2 generation were calculated to range from 34 to 84% and 14 to 26%, respectively. The hydrogen comprised 35 to 60% by volume of evolved gases. The efficacy of our electrolysis cell was further demonstrated by a 20 L prototype reactor totally powered by a photovoltaic (PV) panel, which was shown to eliminate COD and total coliform bacteria in less than 4 h of treatment.

Additional Information

© 2014 American Chemical Society. Received: September 30, 2013; revised: December 16, 2013; Accepted: January 14, 2014. Publication Date (Web): January 14, 2014. The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF RTTC Grant OPP1037491 and BMGF RTTC Grant OPP109500C) and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology for support provided for the graduate study of Kangwoo Cho. This project benefited from the use of instrumentation made available by the Caltech Environmental Analysis Center.

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