The New Mechanistic Model to Illustrate the Complex Phenomena in Electrocoagulation Process of Vinasse

Electrocoagulation (EC) is one of potential methods in wastewater treatments. In treating vinasse waste through EC, complex phenomena occur during EC process. Hence, previous authors have developed mechanistic models, but the models have not illustrated the phenomena completely. Therefore, the goal of this study is to build the new model of EC and apply the model to simulate the EC phenomena in treating vinasse. Many parameters (current, pH, temperature, volume, anode weight loss, dissolved Fe concentration, chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentration, sludge mass and scum mass) are considered in developing this model. The adjustable kinetic constants in this model are kcg, alpha, beta, ke, Af, Ef. The results show that this model can fit the measured data of EC of vinasse at various voltages (7.5 and 12.5 V) with low Sum of Squares of Errors (SSE) value (0.0784-0.2758). The voltage of 12.5 V results higher kcg, ke, Af and lower Ef values than 7.5 V.