Treatment of berberine hydrochloride wastewater by pulse electrocoagulation process
脉冲电絮凝法处理黄连素废水

Pulse electrocoagulation process was applied to the berberine hydrochloride wastewater treatment with Fe as electrode.In the process,pulse duty cycle,current density,pulse frequency,electrode distance and pH were selected as control factors.To investigate the relative sensitivities of control factors and the optimized conditions,orthogonal test was designed and variance analysis was carried out.The results showed that the influence degree on COD removal followed the sequence of pulse duty cycle> pH> electrode distance> pulse frequency> current density,and the degree on berberine removal followed the sequence of pulse duty cycle> pH> current density> pulse frequency> electrode distance.The optimal conditions were: pulse duty cycle of 0.4,pH of 10,electrode distance of 1.5 cm,pulse frequency of 0.1 kHz,current density of 16.7 mA/cm2(current of 3.5 A,cell voltage of 11.2 V).Under the conditions,the removal efficiencies of COD and berberine reached 61% and 74%,respectively.