High performance electrocoagulation process in treating palm oil mill effluent using high current intensity application

Electrocoagulation process using high current intensity to treat palm oil mill effluent(POME) was investigated in this study.Various operating parameters such as electrolysis time, inter-electrode distance and initial pH were carried out to determine the efficient process condition on the removal of chemical oxygen demand(COD),biological oxygen demand(BOD) and suspended solids(SS).The highest treatment was achieved at 50 min with the removal efficiencies for COD, BOD and SS obtained as 85%, 83%, and 84%, respectively.More than 50 min treatment showed the fluctuated trends of removal efficiencies which can be considered insignificant.The application of higher current resulted in higher removals of organics while the gas bubbles also assisted in removing the pollutant particles by floatation.In an inter-electrode distance study, the removal efficiency decreased when inter-electrode distance was either higher or lower than 10 mm due to the increase of solution resistance and the decrease of anode active surface area.In initial pH study, it was found that high removal efficiencies were achieved in slightly acidic POME sample rather than in neutral or basic condition.An electrocoagulation process by using the optimum operating parameters was able to remove COD, BOD and SS up to 95%, 94% and 96% respectively.The experimental results confirm that application of high current intensity in electrocoagulation provided high treatment efficiency at a reduced reaction time.

Characterization of the Optical Properties of Heavy Metal Ions Using Surface Plasmon Resonance Technique

The aim of this research is to characterize the optical properties of heavy metal ions (Hg2+, Cu2+, Pb2+ and Zn2+) using surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technique. Glass cover slips, used as substrates were coated with a 50 nm gold film using sputter coater. The measurement was carried out at room temperature using Kretchmann SPR technique. When the air medium outside the gold film is changed to heavy metal ions solution, the resonance angle shifted to the higher value for all samples of heavy metal ions solution. By our developed fitting program (using Matlab software), the experimental SPR curves were fitted to obtain the refractive index of Hg2+, Cu2+, Pb2+ and Zn2+ ions solution with different concentrations. Both the real and imaginary part of refractive index of the heavy metal ions solution increased with the concentration. The results give the basic idea such that the SPR technique could be used as an alternative optical sensor for detecting heavy metal ions in solution.

Arsenic Detection Using Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensor With Hydrous Ferric Oxide Layer

The lethality of inorganic arsenic(As)and the threat it poses have made the development of efficient As detection systems a vital necessity.This research work demonstrates a sensing layer made of hydrous ferric oxide(Fe_(2)H_(2)O_(4))to detect As(Ⅲ)and As(Ⅴ)ions in a surface plasmon resonance system.The sensor conceptualizes on the strength of Fe_(2)H_(2)O_(4) to absorb As ions and the interaction of plasmon resonance towards the changes occurring on the sensing layer.Detection sensitivity values for As(Ⅲ)and As(Ⅴ)were 1.083°·ppb^(–1) and 0.922°·ppb^(-1),respectively,while the limit of detection for both ions was 0.6 ppb.These findings support the feasibility and potential of the sensor configuration towards paving future advancement in As detection systems.