| Summary: | Solid wastes are one of the major environmental problems and creative utilization could hold the key to the solution. An attempt was made in this study to transform waste from steel containers (WSC) into efficient electrodes for the removal of Acid Red 18 dye from water through an elec-trocoagulation (EC) process. A 1.1 L batch monopolar EC cell with two pre-treated WSC electrode plates connected to an external DC power supply was used. Effects of current density (5–25 mA/ cm2), initial pH (3–11), initial dye concentration (50–250 mg/L), NaCl dosage (0.5–4.0 g/L) and inter-electrode distance (IED) (0.5–2.5 cm) were demonstrated. The best removal of 97.0% ± 1.0% with low sludge production was obtained at a current density of 10 mA/cm2, a pH of 6.8 (original pH of dye), an initial dye concentration of 100 mg/L, a NaCl dosage of 2 g/L, an IED of 0.5 cm and a reaction time of 5 min. The electrical energy consumption and cost of operation were esti-mated at 0.3717 kWh/m3 and US$ 0.9738/m3, respectively. Thus, the WSC electrodes could serve as an economical remedial option for the electrocoagulation treatment of dye-containing wastewater while addressing the solid waste problem. © 2021 Desalination Publications. All rights reserved.
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