The experimental design approach to removal of endocrine disrupting compounds from domestic wastewater by electrooxidation process

In this study, the treatment performance of the process in the removal of Endocrine Disrupting Compounds (EDCs) from domestic wastewater by a laboratory-scale electrooxidation process using Ti/IrO 2 /RuO 2 electrodes as an anode was evaluated using the response surface method (RSM). The effect of pH (3.00–9.00), current density (10–20 A), and flow rate (8–16 mL/min) on the electrochemical removal of 17α-ethinylestradiol, β-estradiol, triclosan, and estrone has been studied. The Box-Behnken Design (BBD) was used to optimize the parameters that affect the removal efficiencies of the Electrooxidation process (EOP), and second-order quadratic models were developed for the EOP process. Under optimum conditions of current density = 10 A, pH = 3.00 and flow rate = 13.93 mL/min, the maximum removal efficiencies of triclosan, 17α-ethinylestradiol and β-estradiol, and minimum energy consumption are 91.65, 96.43 and 96.65% and 41.606 kWh/m 3 , respectively. The Response Surface Method predicted values that reasonably agreed with the experimental values. At the same time, the electrooxidation method is not successful in completely removing estrone from wastewater. Graphical Abstract