From Laboratory to Pilot Scale: Investigating the Mechanisms and Efficacy of Aluminium Electrocoagulation in Bilge Water Treatment
Marios Constantinou, Aikaterini‐Anna Mazioti, Loukas Koutsokeras, Costas Varavvas, Dimitrios Moschovas, Apostolos Avgeropoulos, Ioannis Vyrides, Georgios ConstantinidesABSTRACT
Treating real bilge is challenging because it contains high concentrations of small (< 1 μm) emulsified particles. However, particularly for real bilge, the literature lacks attention to pilot‐scale studies. This study aimed to identify the mechanism of aluminium electrocoagulation for maximizing COD removal from real bilge and to promote the sustainable development of the process. The research methodology involved initial bench‐scale work, followed by pilot continuous‐flow experiments. Results demonstrated the pilot system's efficiency in consistently removing COD, with no chemical adjustments required and with complete separation of sludge and froth precipitates. In contrast with the sludge precipitates, the froth precipitates contained all the impurity metals (i.e., Mg, Mo and Pd) with boehmite (AlOOH) also present. By anchoring our multitechnique evidence (DLS/AFM, SEM/EDS, XRD, GC‐TCD and H 2 monitoring) to explicit reactions, the study moves beyond descriptive performance to a mechanistic framework that is reproducible, comparable across studies and directly actionable for engineering design.