Date of Award

2017

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Engineering

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

First Advisor

Hung, Yung-Tse

Subject Headings

Civil Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Engineering

Abstract

The dairy industry generates abundant milk waste waters characterized by high biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentrations that can be very harmful to the environment, if left untreated. Electrocoagulation (EC) has been in use for waste water treatment. The treatment application uses aluminum electrodes and iron or the combined hybrid Al/Fe electrodes. Milk waste water contains high concentration organic pollutants and the main constituents of those organics are carbohydrates, proteins and fats, originating from the milk. The process of separating the flocculated sludge from waste water that has been treated using the electrocoagulation process can be accomplished by the flotation processes. The electroflotation technology is effective in removing colloidal particles, oil, grease, as well as organic pollutants from waste water. This study uses electrochemical and electroflotation treatment of milk waste water by means of an aluminum electrode with specific parameters including total organic carbon (TOC), pH, turbidity, transmittance, and temperature. Even though the electrochemical and electroflotation treatment processes have been around for some time, it has not been thoroughly studied. This study is going to highlight the importance of this technique as a pre-treatment method of milk waste water and its contribution to the reduction of pollutants in the milk processing industry. Furthermore, the process of electroflotation and electrochemical flotation continuously prove to be effective in remediation of varieties of pollutants of different chemical compositions and have the ability to achieve a very high treatment efficiency.

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