ELECTROCOAGULATION-FLOTATION PROCESS: INVESTIGATION OF OPERATIONAL PARAMETERS FOR WASTEWATER TREATMENT FROM FISHERY INDUSTRY

The objective of this study was the utilization of an electrocoagulation-flotation process to evaluate the treatment of a real wastewater from fish industries (Brazil - SC). This type of effluent is usually treated by conventional processes, which are often not sufficient to meet the desired final quality of legal environmental requirements. The effect of current density, pH and treatment time was evaluated. The best experimental conditions for the process were current of 5 A, potential of 15 V and distance between electrodes equal to 10 mm. Under these conditions, the removal of the contaminants were expressive for all analyzed parameters as follows: average color reduction of 95.5%; turbidity of 96.9%; COD 93.3; BOD5 of 97.5%; phosphorus of 88.5% and oils and greases of 93.6%.