Wastewater Treatment

Wastewater Treatment without additional Chemicals

EAOP® (Electrochemical Advanced Oxidation Process)

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Application Examples Advantages Function Proof in Practice Further Explanations Products

There are many types of pollution in wastewater: toxic substances, with poor biodegradability and persistent substances such as drug residues. These accumulate particularly in industrial production processes or the commercial use of hazardous substances. We have developed a process for oxidative wastewater treatment that is suitable for the removal of a wide variety of pollutants.

Our CONDIACELL® cells, which are equipped with diamond electrodes, are suitable both for total oxidation, i.e. use at high pollutant concentrations and low volumes, and for electrochemical polishing applications at low pollutant concentrations and high volumes.

Our EAOP® can be easily combined with other wastewater treatment processes.

Application Examples for Wastewater Treatment

BASF - Oxidation of phosphorus (III)
Organic pesticides
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Sewage from nuclear power plants
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PFAS degradation
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Persistent trace substances
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Pharmaceutical industry
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China: wastewater treatment of ink production
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Active pharmaceutical ingredients
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The Advantages of Wastewater Treatment with EAOP®

Easy combination with other methods

Inline process control

Low space requirement

Modular design

On / off functionality

Easy maintenance

No waste

No addition of chemicals

This is how Wastewater Treatment works

Cold Incineration by Hydroxyl Radicals

Wastewater treatment with diamond electrodes - Cold combustion by hydroxyl radicals

Only hydroxyl radicals are formed on DIACHEM® electrodes by water electrolysis. The EAOP® with DIACHEM® diamond electrodes uses the hydroxyl radicals produced for industrial waste water treatment.

Hydroxyl radicals cause a "cold incineration" of organic substances. This works with all organic compounds dissolved in water. Responsible for this extensive range of action is the high oxidation potential of the hydroxyl radicals - with their highest current yields they trigger this conversion of substances.

Proof in Practice

Wastewater Treatment in the Paper Industry

COD Reduction in the Paper Industry

Degradation of organic pollutants in the paper industry

The results of waste water treatment in the paper industry show that the CONDIACELL® cell model CC5000 has achieved the degradation of organic pollutants (here indicated in COD) to the target value (red line) with an efficiency of up to 100% (dashed line) of the used electricity.

Degradation of Complexing Agent EDTA in the Paper Industry

Degradation of the complexing agent EDTA with CONDIACELL

The results of wastewater treatment in the paper industry also show that the CONDIACELL® cell model CC5000 reduces the degradation of the organic pollutant EDTA > 80%. The reduction of this individual substance is faster than the reduction of the total organic load (here COD).

Here it can be seen that - by using EAOP® - individual critical water components can be reduced in accordance with the objectives of wastewater treatment in order to make them biodegradable without having to reduce the total organic content accordingly.

Wastewater Treatment in the Automotive Industry

Proof of Effectiveness - Automotive Industry

Degradation of organic pollutants in the automotive industry

The results of wastewater treatment in the automotive industry show that the CONDIACELL® cell model CC5000 can reduce the total amount of organic pollutants without any loss of efficiency of the electrolysis flow.

Thus, by selecting the appropriate operating parameters of cell and wastewater flow, maximum efficiency of wastewater treatment processes can be achieved in the corresponding industry.

Degradation of hardly biodegradable organic Pollutants - Automotive Industry

Degradation of a surfactant in waste water from the automotive industry

The results of wastewater treatment in the automotive industry show that the CONDIACELL® cell model CC5000 can reduce the degradation of poorly biodegradable organic pollutants - in this case a surfactant - in accordance with the limit values to be observed (red line) and even beyond.

This is also possible efficiently if the pollutant is present in concentrations in the mg range as part of an organic content of several g/L

Further Explanations

... for oxidative wastewater treatment with products of the CONDIACELL® cells:

For the EAOP®, hydroxyl radicals (OH radicals) are required which, due to their high oxidation potential of 2.8 V, can oxidatively degrade almost all organic pollutants.

OH radicals are generated directly from water on boron-doped diamond electrodes. The boron-doped diamond electrode has special material properties that other known electrode materials do not have. Thus, OH radicals are generated only on boron-doped diamond electrodes without oxygen being formed at the anode. This is due to the high overvoltage of the boron-doped diamond electrode of 2.8 V compared to SHE for the decomposition of water.

Hydroxyl radicals are so short-lived (life span of a few nanoseconds) that they are very difficult to detect directly.

It is easier to prove the effectiveness of CONDIACELL® cell products for wastewater treatment. The CONDIACELL® cell products offer an optimized solution for various applications in total oxidation or electrochemical water polishing.

In the recent past the products of the CONDIACELL® cell model CC5000 have been used in industrial applications and the proof of effectiveness of the pollutant decomposition has been positively demonstrated several times.

High concentration of pollutants, low volumes

The treatment of waste water that is difficult to biodegrade or contains toxic organic substances is very complex and limited in its effect with conventional water treatment technologies.

In most cases, incineration is the only way to safely dispose of these liquid wastes. To avoid the transport of these liquid wastes, EAOP® is a very efficient alternative to thermal incineration.

The resulting highly oxidative hydroxyl radicals carry out a "cold incineration" by oxidizing all organic compounds by means of water electrolysis.

In most cases, the treated water can be discharged directly or into a biological clarification stage.

Total oxidation with EAOP® has a high potential to achieve the goals of waste water treatment for, among other things, production waste water containing organophosphates (C-P) or halogenated hydrocarbons (C-X (X = F, Cl, Br, I) and for the production of plastics, plasticizers, flame retardants, extinguishing agents, biocides or pesticides.

Due to the reliability and efficiency of EAOP® with DIACHEM® diamond electrodes, BASF has been relying on this innovative technology for wastewater treatment since 2009. The aim of this application is the oxidation of phosphorus(III) molecules. The electrolysis cells treat up to 5 cubic meters per cell and hour.

The demand for the EAOP® as an alternative technology for oxidative wastewater treatment with its specific, highly functional properties is clearly demonstrated by the large number of projects for treatment processes in industry that are currently underway in cooperation with CONDIAS and its partners.

Low pollutant concentration, high volumes

Due to the steady increase in concentration in the natural water cycle persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic pollutants currently pose hazards to humans, fauna and flora.

For the degradation of ecotoxic pollutants in small or even very large quantities of water, the Electrochemical Advanced Oxidation Process EAOP® is qualified as a treatment step mainly before or after biological treatment.

In all cases of Electrochemical Water Polishing the treatment goal is to degrade organic pollutants down to a few mg/l or even μg/l. Compared to other AOPs, the EAOP® is much more energy efficient for treatment objectives of water polishing/purification.

The water treatment targets are of great importance for waters containing active pharmaceutical ingredients such as antibiotics, halogenated/fluorinated hydrocarbons, organophosphates, complexing agents, halogenated surfactants, hormones or other ecotoxic, persistent ingredients in very low concentrations.

For further research activities on EAOP® as the fourth wastewater treatment after biological treatment, CONDIAS has been participating in the BMBF research project "RISK-IDENT" since 2011. The research project was aimed at the evaluation of previously unidentified anthropogenic trace substances as well as strategies for risk management in the aquatic system. CONDIAS aimed to investigate and qualify the use of EAOP® as an option of the 4th clarification stage for the degradation of trace substances. The investigations yielded a positive result with regard to the large effective range, energy efficiency and handling compared to known technologies such as ozonation and activated carbon absorption. No ecotoxicological effect of the EAOP® for the removal of trace substances could be determined in the project.

In industrial applications EAOP® has been used in Sweden since 2010 for waste water treatment in the electroplating industry. The aim of the treatment is to degrade the highly toxic and environmentally harmful molecule aniline from a concentration of several mg/l to below 0.1 mg/l.