Electrochemical and sonochemical advanced oxidation processes applied to tartrazine removal. Influence of operational conditions and aqueous matrix

Tartrazine degradation was investigated by electrochemical and sonochemical oxidation processes. Anodic oxidation was carried out using boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrodes. The influence of current density and dye initial concentration on the removal of tartrazine from water was analyzed. The experimental results indicate that total removal of tartrazine was obtained, and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and Total Organic Carbon (TOC) removals of up to 94.4% and 72.8% were achieved, respectively. To optimize the process, the pollutant removal percentage, the kinetic rate constant, and the TOC removal efficiency were chosen as target variables. Moreover, sonochemical oxidation experiments at a high-frequency range of cavitation (up to 1 MHz) were performed to establish the influence of three different operating variables, namely ultrasound frequency (0.5–1.1 MHz), ultrasound power (2.0–26.6 W ⋅L−1), and pulse-stop ratio (5:1–1:1). The process was also analyzed in terms of kinetics and energy costs. The kinetics resulted to be three times faster for the electrochemical process. However, the calculated energy costs were very similar, at least at long treatment times. Finally, the influence of three aqueous matrices was investigated. According to the experimental results, the natural occurrence of chloride and/or nitrate ions in water strongly conditions the rate of the process, although at least 90% of tartrazine removal was achieved within the first 50 min of treatment. [Display omitted] •Tartrazine (TTZ) was removed from solution by electrochemical and sonochemical oxidation.•RSM was successfully used to optimize the electrochemical oxidation (EO) process.•Pollutant and TOC removal efficiencies above 99 and 85% were achieved within 120 min by EO.•Cavitation-mediated sonochemical oxidation (SO) is ~3 times slower than EO for removing TTZ.•SO energy consumption per mmol of TTZ removed is ~20% lower at large operation times (≥90′).