Efficacy of Electrochemical Treatment Method in Removing Pollutants from Restaurant Wastewater

This study characterized restaurant wastewater and investigated the treatment of restaurant wastewater electrochemically. It also examined the effects of selected factors on the performance of the electrochemical process. This was with a view to evaluating the performance of the electrochemical process. Wastewater from student canteen and a fast-food restaurant were collected into polyethylene bags and treated using electrochemical method in a batch reactor. After addition of wastewater to the reactor, the experiments were carried out separately varying the following factors: voltage, separation distance between electrodes, and volume of wastewater. 23 factorial experiments were used to identify factors that influence the efficacy of the electrochemical method. The efficiency of the method was evaluated using Yates’ algorithm. The results showed that restaurant wastewater is acidic and polluted with high oil and grease content, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), and conductivity. Applied voltage and distance between electrodes had a positive and negative effect respectively on the performance of the electrochemical treatment process while volume of the wastewater had a negative effect on pH increase and a varied effect on the removal of other pollutants. Electrochemical treatment process can neutralize pH of restaurant wastewater and is efficient in removing oil and grease, BOD, COD, TSS and conductivity from restaurant wastewater with results yielding greater than 90% removal. The significant factors at 95% confidence level were applied voltage (F = 20.33), separation distance between electrodes (F = 20.64), and volume of wastewater (F = 39.57).The study concluded that electrochemical treatment method has the potential to treat restaurant wastewater in a rectangular batch reactor.