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Peroxi-coagulation (PC) is an interesting new process that has not been widely studied in the literature. This work presents the application of this technology to treat an azo dye synthetic effluent, studying the effect of different parameters including initial pH, current density (j), initial dye concentration and supporting electrolyte. The two former variables significantly affected the colour removal of the wastewater, followed by the initial dye concentration and the kind of electrolyte, in a lesser extent. The optimum operating conditions achieved were initial pH of 3.0, j = 33.3 mA cm -2 , 100 mg L -1 of methyl orange (MO) and Na 2 SO 4 as supporting electrolyte. The performance of PC was also compared to other electrochemical advanced processes, under similar experimental conditions. Results indicate that the kinetic decay of the MO increases in the following order: electrocoagulation (EC) < electrochemical oxidation (EO) with electrogenerated H 2 O 2 << PC < electro-Fenton (EF). This behaviour is given to the high oxidant character of the homogenous OH radicals generated by EF and PC approaches. The EO process with production of H 2 O 2 (EO-H 2 O 2 ) is limited by mass transport and the EC, as a separation method, takes longer times to achieve similar removal results. Energy requirements about 0.06 kWh g COD -1 , 0.09 kWh g COD -1 , 0.7 kWh g COD -1 and 0.1 kWh g COD -1 were achieved for PC, EF, EO-H 2 O 2 and EC, respectively. Degradation intermediates were monitored and carboxylic acids were detected for PC and EF processes, being rapidly removed by the former technology. PC emerges as a promising and competitive alternative for wastewaters depollution, among other oxidative approaches., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Electrochemical water treatment technologies are highly promising to achieve complete decolorization of dyebath effluents, as demonstrated by several studies reported in the literature. However, these works are focused on the treatment of one model pollutant and generalize the performances of the processes which are not transposable since they depend on the pollutant treated. Thus, in the present study, we evaluate, for the first time, the influence of different functional groups that modify the dye structure on the electrochemical process decolorization performance. The textile azo dyes Reactive Orange 16, Reactive Violet 4, Reactive Red 228, and Reactive Black 5 have been selected because they present the same molecular basis structure with different functional groups. The results demonstrate that the functional groups that reduce the nucleophilicity of the pollutant hinder the electrophilic attack of electrogenerated hydroxyl radical. Thereby, the overall decolorization efficiency is consequently reduced as well as the decolorization rate. Moreover, the presence of an additional chromophore azo bond in the molecule enhances the recalcitrant character of the azo dyes as pollutants. The formation of a larger and more stable conjugated π system increases the activation energy required for the electrophyilic attack of • OH, affecting the performance of electrochemical technologies on effluent decolorization.