Iranian Journal of

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Background and objective: The conventional chemical and physical methods for water disinfection include the application of ultraviolet (UV), chlorination, and ozonation. Water disinfection by electrochemical methods has been increasingly carried out recently. The goal of this applied - analytical research is to investigate the removal of E. coli bacteria, as the index of water microbial contamination, from drinking water by electrochemistry method.
Materials and Methods: In this study, the contaminated water sample was prepared through adding 102 and 103 E. coli bacteria per ml of drinking water. The contaminated water entered into the electrochemical reactor and different conditions were studied, included pH (6, 7, and 8), number of bacterium (102 and 103 per milliliter), time (5, 10, 20, and 40 min), distance between electrodes (2,2.5, 3, and 3.5 cm), and voltage (10, 20, 30, and 40 volts).
Results: The findings indicated the indirect correlation between bacteria removal efficiency and the variable distances between two electrode. The results indicated the direct correlation between bacteria removal efficiency and the variables voltage and electrolysis times. The results showed that the best conditions for removal of 102 and 103 bacteria per milliliter obtained at pH 7, electrolysis time of 10 min, distance between electrodes 2 cm, in the voltage 20 and 30 volts, respectively.
Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that voltage and electrolysis time have the most significant effect on electrolysis efficiency. Research findings showed that electrolysis is a promising method for removal of E. coli bacterium from drinking water.

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MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Background and Objectives: The presence of chemical dyes in the water resources not only pollutes them, but also brings about death of organisms and serious indemnities to the environment through stopping oxygen production and preventing penetration of the sunlight. In this study, we investigated the efficiency of the electrolysis process for decolonization of phenolphthalein and phenol red from aqueous environment.
Materials and Methods: The experiments were conducted in an electrochemical reactor having a working volume of 1 liter equipped with 2 graphite electrodes. This study was conducted at laboratory scale. Samples were prepared by dissolving two phenol red and phenolphthalein dyes in drinking water. Then, the effect of operating parameters such as voltage, inter-electrode distance, and NaCl concentration on the complete dye removal was determined considering optimum retention time using  Factorial variance analyses and the graphs were plotted using MS Excel software.
Results: the results showed that the optimum conditions for completely removal of phenolphthalein was achieved applying a voltage of 48 V, the retention time of 9 minutes, 5 cm inter-electrode distance, and the salt concentration of 1.5 g/l, whereas, complete removal of phenol red was achieved applying a voltage of 48 V, the retention time of 8 minutes, 5 cm inter-electrode distance, and the salt concentration of 2 g/l. Under these conditions, COD removal efficiency for phenol red and phenolphthalein was 85 and 80 percent respectively.
Conclusion: This study revealed that electrolysis process is an effective method to remove both phenolphthalein and phenol red dyes from effluent, because it can completely remove the dyes in a short time.