Evaluation of electrocoagulation and chemical coagulation methods in the treatment of soft drink industry wastewater

Soft drinks, which are considered among the basic needs in daily life in the whole world, are one of the most important elements of international trade based on this feature. Considering the volume, importance, product range, and features, it is especially important to evaluate the environmental impacts and sustainability of soft drink industry. Various substances are used in the production of soft drink based on the formulation of product groups, but the main component of the product is water. In addition to being a raw material, water is often used to wash the bottles, syrup preparation, filling, and mixing equipment in the process and refrigeration and cleaning process. These processes and units are also the main wastewater formation spots of the process. It is extremely important to treatment wastewater of the soft drinks industry as it contains various chemical substances induced by the filling of syrup and soft drinks, washing of bottles, cans, equipment, and machines, and maintenance and lubricating of machines and equipment, and it has potential environmental effects if not accurately treated. This study examined the treatability of wastewater collected from a facility that operates in the production of soft drinks with the electrocoagulation and chemical coagulation methods, and the consecutive use of these coagulation methods and adsorption method. The electrocoagulation method where Fe electrodes were used and the chemical coagulation method where FeCl3•6H2O was used as the coagulant were evaluated based on COD removal efficiencies. It was found that the COD removal efficiency was 42% with the electrocoagulation method and 23% with the chemical coagulation method. Then, the efficiency of the adsorption method in the COD removal of the electrocoagulation and chemical coagulation effluent was tried to be determined. In experiments where active carbon was used as the adsorbent, the removal efficiency was 42% for the electrocoagulation and 36% for the chemical coagulation.