Water Science & Technology Vol 65 No 12 pp 2183–2190 © IWA Publishing 2012 doi:10.2166/wst.2012.130

Electrochemical treatment of Baker's yeast wastewater containing melanoidin: optimization through response surface methodology

E. Gengec, M. Kobya, E. Demirbas, A. Akyol and K. Oktor

Effluents from Baker's yeast production plant contain a high percentage of color and a large amount of organic load. In the present study, Baker's yeast wastewater (BYW) is treated with the electrocoagulation (EC) process using Al electrodes. Operating parameters (pH, current density, color intensity and operating time) are optimized by response surface methodology (RSM). Quadratic models are developed for the responses which are removal efficiencies of color, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total organic carbon (TOC) and operating cost (OC). Optimum operating parameters and responses are determined as initial pH 5.2, current density of 61.3 A/m² and operation time of 33 min, and 71% of color, 24% of COD, 24% of TOC removal efficiencies and OC of 0.869 €/m³, respectively. The quadratic model fits for all responses very well with R² (>0.95). This paper clearly shows that RSM is able to optimize the operating parameters to maximize the color, COD and TOC removal efficiencies and minimize the OC.

Keywords: Baker's yeast wastewater; electrocoagulation; operating cost; optimization; melanoidin

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