Degradation of oil pollution in seawater by bipolar electro-Fenton process

The fast development of oil products leads to growing waste emissions and oil spill accidents. Oil dissolved in water causes many immediate and potentially chronic adverse effects on marine habitats and coastal ecosystems. Electro-Fenton technology possesses many significant advantages for treatment of refractory material from water. The possibility of using in situ electrochemical reaction of the bipolar electro-Fenton process for solving oil pollution problems in seawater is investigated. The study shows that the bipolar electro- Fenton technology is feasible for treatment of oily seawater. In the process of the bipolar electro-Fenton, operating current density and pH have effects on the removal efficiency of oil pollution from seawater. Higher current density is favorable for removal of oil pollution, and the optimum pH was 2.5-3.5. Under the optimum pH value of 3.5 and current density of 25 mA/m², the oil and COD concentration decreased about 90-95%. By process of the bipolar electro-Fenton, most of the components of oil were degraded to smaller molecular compounds. In addition to indirect oxidation, electro flocculation and adsorption is inevitable for the removal of pollutants when using bipolar electro-Fenton.