Laboratory study of the silica removal in water by electro-Fenton method: Effect of operational parameters

The objective of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of the removal of silica from water, when using the electro-Fenton (EF) advanced oxidation process. In this laboratory study, tests were carried out varying the following parameters: pH, current density, reaction time, monopolar system vs bipolar system, inter-electrode distance. A percentage removal as high as 95% at near neutral pH was obtained after 40 min operating time using a bipolar arrangement of the electrodes. Desilication was found to increase with the increasing applied current density. Maximum removal of silica was observed at near neutral pH.