Development of model for treatment of pulp and paper industry bleaching effluent using response surface methodology

The treatment of bleaching‐effluent from pulp and paper industry was investigated in a batch electrocoagulation (EC) reactor using aluminium as sacrificial electrodes. The response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to evaluate the individual and interactive effects of four independent parameters viz., current density (j: 5–25 mA/cm2), initial pH (pHo: 5–9), electrolyte (NaCl) concentration (c: 0–2 g/L) and electrolysis time (t: 10–30 min) on Colour, COD and BOD removal efficiency. The results were analyzed using Pareto analysis of variance (ANOVA). Based on RSM analysis, a second‐order polynomial regression model was developed and found to be good fit with experimental results.