Patent ID: 6663766
Filing Date: 2003-12-16
Classification: C02F

Abstract:
An electroflocculation process for water and wastewater treatment comprising providing a stack of electrically-conducting perforated spaced-apart plates serving as metallic electrodes, each of said plates being provided with an array of a multiplicity of through-going apertures and said electrodes being selected from the group consisting of metallic aluminum electrodes and metallic iron electrodes, and said plates being suspended in a vessel with their peripheral edges in proximity to a wall of said vessel, each plate being electrically insulated from adjacent plates and having apertures misaligned relative to apertures of adjacent plates; and supplying a voltage to said electrodes in the range of between 2 to 60 volts to form trivalent ions in situ by electrolysis of said metallic electrodes, which trivalent ions function as coagulation agents, wherein water to be treated is caused to ascend sequentially through apertures provided in said stack of metallic plates serving as said electrodes, each plate being charged with a polarity opposite to plates adjacent thereto, apertures of adjacent plates being vertically misaligned, whereby turbulent flow and mixing is created by the sequential passage of said water to be treated, through the plates, from the apertures of the lowest of said plates to the apertures of the plates thereabove to exit from the highest of said plates.