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The effect of voltage on polypropylene microplastics removal by electrocoagulation process using Fe electrode


Norfaezatul Alysa Othman Chemical Engineering Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Cawangan Pulau Pinang, Permatang Pauh Campus, 13500 Pulau Pinang, Malaysia Norain Isa Chemical Engineering Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Cawangan Pulau Pinang, Permatang Pauh Campus, 13500 Pulau Pinang, Malaysia Waste Management and Resource Recovery (WeResCue) Group, Chemical Engineering Studies, College of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Cawangan Pulau Pinang, 13500 Permatang Pauh, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia Nurulhuda Amri Chemical Engineering Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Cawangan Pulau Pinang, Permatang Pauh Campus, 13500 Pulau Pinang, Malaysia Nor Aimi Abdul Wahab Department of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Cawangan Pulau Pinang, Permatang Pauh Campus, 13500 Pulau Pinang, Malaysia Nurulhuda Bashirom School of Materials Engineering, Kompleks Pusat Pengajian Jejawi 2, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Taman Muhibbah, 02600 Jejawi, Arau, Perlis, Malaysia
Abstract
This study investigates the effect of voltage on the removal of polypropylene microplastics (PPMPs) from artificial wastewater via an electrocoagulation (EC) process using iron (Fe) electrodes. The effect of the voltage was investigated by conducting multiple continuous flow experiments at three different voltage values (10, 20, and 30 V). The findings demonstrated that the turbidity value increased gradually as the initial voltage increased, from 6.67 NTU at 10 V to 74.37 NTU at 30 V. In this EC process, in which Fe electrodes are utilized to remove the PPMPs, it is believed that 20 V provides optimal support. Kinetic studies showed that the process followed a first-order kinetic model with a kinetics rate constant (k) of 0.0143 min-1 and a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.9702. The findings demonstrated that voltage is a significant parameter in the EC process employing Fe electrodes to remove PPMPs from wastewater.
Keyword: Electrocoagulation, Fe electrode, Polypropylene microplastics, Removal efficiency, Voltage
DOI: https://doi.org/10.24191/esteem.v20iMarch.610.g535
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