Simulation of hexavalent chromium removal by electrocoagulation using iron anode in flow-through reactor

An electrocoagulation (EC) model is developed for hexavalent chromium reduction and precipitation, using iron electrodes. Parallel removal mechanisms such as adsorption of chromium on ferrihydrite and direct reduction at the cathode is assumed negligible due to low concentration of Cr(VI). The reaction model presented for batch system represents species complexation, precipitation/dissolution, acid/base, and oxidation-reduction reactions. Batch reactor simulation is verified using experimental data obtained by Sarahney et al. (2012), where the effect of initial chromium concentration, pH, volumetric current density, and ionic strength is considered (Sarahney et al., 2012). The model couples multicomponent ionic transport in MATLAB with chemical reaction model in PHREEQC, as a widely used computational programming tool and a geochemical reaction simulator with comprehensive geochemistry databases. The suggested current density is 0.05-0.3mA/cm