Investigation of sesame processing wastewater treatment with combined electrochemical and membrane processes

This study aims to investigate the treatability of the wastewater generated from the sesame seeds dehulling process by a combination of electrochemical techniques with a membrane filtration system. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) and phenol removal performances were studied for four different cathodes material (iron (Fe), aluminum (Al), platinum (Pt), and boron-doped diamond (BDD)) at different current densities in the electrochemical treatment stage. The maximum removal efficiency was obtained when the BDD electrodes were used. The optimum conditions were 100 A/m2 of current density and 120 min of electrolysis period, where 40% and 85% of COD and phenol removals subsequently were achieved. The generated water from the first stage was passed through two different membrane systems. The membrane systems were microfiltration and ultrafiltration. The uptake performance for microfiltration was 22% and 17% for COD and phenol reduction subsequently. The ultrafiltration performed well and has given an additional removal of 27% and 20% of both COD and phenol reduction, respectively. The final results showed the importance of the studied combined systems and the additional value to the final obtained water quality.