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Abstract Distillery industrial wastewater (DIW) was tested for color and COD removal percentages using an electrochemical and advanced oxidation processes (AOPs). Specifically, the study compared direct/alternating–current–electrocoagulation (DC‐EC/AC‐EC), sono (US), and direct/alternating current–electrocoagulation coupled with sono (US) (DC‐EC/US and AC‐EC/US) processes. Also evaluated were the effects of these procedures on the power needed to treat DIW. Experimental results showed that compared to single processes such as DC‐EC, AC‐EC, US, hybrid DC‐EC/US, and the hybrid AC‐EC/US process achieved a total color elimination efficiency of 100 % and a COD elimination efficiency of 100 % while using a lower power consumption of 4.76 kWhrm−3. The effects of important operational factors such treatment duration, cycle of pulse duty, sonication power, current density, chemical oxygen demand, electrode spacing, electrode pairing, pH, concentration of electrolyte on the % removal of COD and power usage of DIW were investigated using hybrid AC‐EC/US process. When using a Fe/Fe electrode combination, the effectiveness of COD removal was shown to be enhanced by increasing the treatment duration, current, US power, and decreasing the COD concentration, electrode spacing. The study also provided the results of an investigation into the synergistic index between AC‐EC and US process and operational cost. Based on its ability to efficiently and effectively remove contaminants from wastewater and industrial effluent, the AC‐EC/US approach stands out among the other methods.