Treatment of waste plastic recycling facility wastewater via pre‐coagulated electrooxidation process

Wastewater generated in the washing units of waste plastic recycling facilities exhibits a complex composition due to high concentrations of organic pollutants, thereby necessitating advanced treatment strategies. Consequently, identifying effective treatment technologies capable of achieving high total organic carbon (TOC) removal efficiencies for such wastewater is of critical importance. In this study, the hypothesis that a hybrid treatment approach involving the sequential application of chemical coagulation (CC) and electrooxidation (EO) could enable efficient and high‐performance TOC removal from waste plastic recycling wastewater (WPRW) was systematically evaluated. During the pretreatment stage, two coagulants were examined, among which aluminium chloride (AlCl 3 ) yielded the highest TOC removal efficiency (40.8%). Subsequently, the EO process was conducted using boron‐doped diamond (BDD) and platinum–iridium oxide (Pt–IrO 2 ) electrodes. The effects of key operational parameters, including electrode type, applied current (0.5–2 A), pH, and mixing speed (200–800 rpm), on TOC removal were investigated. Following AlCl 3 coagulation, maximum TOC removal efficiencies of 89.19% and 63.41% were achieved using BDD and Pt–IrO 2 electrodes, respectively, under optimum conditions (pH 6, 20 A/m 2 ). Energy consumption analysis revealed that higher mixing speeds allowed the use of lower current densities without compromising TOC removal, indicating substantial potential for process‐level energy optimization. The specific energy consumption (SEC) ranged from 0.01 to 0.28 kWh/kg TOC removed for the BDD electrode and from 0.03 to 0.40 kWh/kg TOC removed for the Pt–IrO 2 electrode. Overall, the BDD anode exhibited high treatment efficiency and energy economy, making AlCl 3 ‐assisted BDD electrooxidation a promising approach for plastic recycling wastewater treatment.