Removal of fluoride, SDS, ammonia and turbidity from semiconductor wastewater by combined electrocoagulation–electroflotation

Abstract Semiconductor industry effluents contain organic and inorganic pollutants, such as sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), fluoride and ammonia, at high levels which consists a major environmental issue. A combined EC–EF process is proposed as a post-treatment after precipitation for simultaneous clarification and removal of pollutants. In EC step, a hybrid Fe–Al was used as the soluble anode in order to avoid supplementary EC step. EC-Fe is more suitable for SDS removal; EC-Al is more suitable for fluoride removal, while EC with hybrid Al-Fe makes a good compromise. Clarification and ammonia oxidation were achieved in the EF step. Effects of anodic material, initial pH, current, anion nature, chloride concentration and initial pollutant concentration were studied. The final concentrations may reach 0.27, 6.23 and 0.22 mg L −1 for SDS, fluoride and ammonia respectively. These concentrations are far lower than the correspondent discharge limits. Similarly, the final turbidity was found 4.35 NTU which is lower than 5NTU and the treated water does not need further filtration before discharge. Furthermore, the EC-EF process proves to be sufficiently energy-efficient with less soluble electrode consumption.