Synergetic effects of iron-carbon micro-electrolysis integrating with other technologies

The combination of iron-carbon micro-electrolysis (ICME) technology and other technologies is an important development direction for the treatment of refractory wastewater, which could overcome the disadvantages of each technology and combine the advantages of each technology. The synergetic effects of ICME combined with Fenton process not only save the cost of adding reagents, but also significantly improve the efficiency of the combination treatment. The advantage from the combination of ICME with ozone is due to plenty of hydroxyl radicals coming from ozone decomposition, which enhances the complex contaminants removal. The synergetic effects of ICME integrated with biological process include mainly two respects. One is that the galvanic cells produced around the ICME could readily convert complex organic compounds to biodegradable substrates, which is conducive to the degradation of pollutants by microbes. Another one is that the iron ions released from ICME possess great capability to promote the performance of the microbes to treat wastewater, for instance, mineral nutrients for microbes, electron transfer mediator, and vital components of enzymes. Accordingly, the integration of ICME with other technologies has great application prospect for refractory wastewater.