Abstract
Conventional physical, chemical, and biological treatment processes have been developed to prevent environmental pollution and preserve the quality of human habitats. An attractive alternative for these processes is offered by the electrochemical approach to pollutant neutralization. Electrochemical processing is an elegant and clean technology because “electrons,” at least from this point of view, may provide a versatile reagent for many redox reactions. Therefore, electrochemical reactor design, incorporating suitable electrode materials and using controlled reaction engineering can provide a timely solution to avoid certain pollutants via clean synthesis, reagent recycling, water treatment or monitoring of toxic species.
Organic compounds are the main cause of environmental pollution in the oil industry. The electrochemical treatment or destruction of organic compounds is potentially a powerful method of pollution control, offering a low-temperature alternative to incineration. Electrochemical processes can determine the complete destruction of organic species by anode oxidation to carbon dioxide or cathode reduction to low or non-pollutant organic compounds. The electrochemical destruction of pollutants can be achieved directly through the so-called direct electrolysis in which an electron transfer reaction to or from the undesired pollutant occurs at the surface of an electrode. On the other hand, with the so-called indirect electrolysis, the destruction of pollutants can be achieved with the use of a dissolved redox reagent (e.g., H₂O₂, O3, HOCl, Cl₂), existing in or being generated from the electrolyte in order to neutralize the undesired pollutant. Some performance parameters of environmental electrochemical processes are also presented