Treatment of cooling tower blowdown water containing silica, calcium and magnesium by electrocoagulation

This research investigated the effectiveness of electrocoagulation using iron and aluminium electrodes for treating cooling tower blowdown (CTB) waters containing dissolved silica (Si(OH)₄), Ca²⁺ and Mg ²⁺. The removal of each target species was measured as a function of the coagulant dose in simulated CTB waters with initial pH values of 5, 7, and 9. Experiments were also performed to investigate the effect of antiscaling compounds and coagulation aids on hardness ion removal. Both iron and aluminum electrodes were effective at removing dissolved silica. For coagulant doses ≤3mM, silica removal was a linear function of the coagulant dose, with 0.4 to 0.5 moles of silica removed per mole of iron or aluminium. Iron electrodes were only 30% as effective at removing Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ as compared to silica. There was no measurable removal of hardness ions by aluminium electrodes in the absence of organic additives. Phosphonate based antiscaling compounds were uniformly effective at increasing the removal of Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ by both iron and aluminium electrodes. Cationic and amphoteric polymers used as coagulation aids were also effective at increasing hardness ion removal.