Dye Destruction and Simultaneous Generation of Sodium Hydroxide Using a Divided Electrochemical Reactor.

Textile dye bath effluent contains high concentrations of organic dye, sodium chloride, and other chemicals which inhibit the activity of microorganisms during biological oxidation. Hence high concentrations of organic dye and total dissolved solids have to be removed considerably before biological treatment. In this paper, degradation of dye effluent and simultaneous generation of caustic soda in an electrochemical membrane cell was investigated. Experiments were carried out at different current densities and different flow rates using Ti/RuO 2/IrO 2as anode and stainless steel as cathode. In the present study of dye effluent treatment the results showed that the electrochemical process could effectively remove COD and color by anodic oxidation (92.16% and 100%) and concentrate caustic soda from 40 to 210.28 g L −1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]