Assessment of the formation of inorganic oxidation by-products during the electrocatalytic treatment of ammonium from landfill leachates

This work investigates the formation of oxidation by-products during the electrochemical removal of ammonium using BDD electrodes from wastewaters containing chlorides. The influence of the initial chloride concentration has been experimentally analyzed first, working with model solutions with variable ammonium concentration and second, with municipal landfill leachates. Two different levels of chloride concentration were studied, i) low chloride concentrations ranging between 0 and 2000 mg/L and, ii) high chloride concentrations ranging between 5000 and 20,000 mg/L. Ammonium removal took place mainly via indirect oxidation leading to the formation of nitrogen gas and nitrate as the main oxidation products; at high chloride concentration the formation of nitrogen gas and the rate of ammonium removal were both favored. However, chloride was also oxidized during the electrochemical treatment leading to the formation of free chlorine responsible of the ammonium oxidation, together with undesirable products such as chloramines, chlorate and perchlorate. Chloramines appeared during the treatment but they reached a maximum and then started decreasing, being totally removed when high chloride concentrations were used. With regard to the formation of chlorate and perchlorate once again the concentration of chloride exerted a strong influence on the formation kinetics of the oxidation by-products and whereas at low chloride concentrations, chlorate appeared like an intermediate compound leading to the formation of perchlorate, at high chloride concentrations chlorate formation was delayed significantly and perchlorate was not detected during the experimental time. Thus this work contributes first to the knowledge of the potential hazards of applying the electro-oxidation technology as an environmental technology to deal with ammonium oxidation under the presence of chloride and second it reports efficient conditions that minimize or even avoid the formation of undesirable by-products.