Electrochemical treatment of nitrite using stainless steel electrodes

The efficiency of nitrite removal in an electrochemical cell was investigat ed in this study using stainless steel electrodes. The experiments were des igned to study the effects of current input, volume of the solution, initia l pH, and number of electrodes on removal of nitrite at a concentration typ ical to aquaculture system effluents. Current variation causes opposite tre nds, while an increase in current would increase the oxidizing efficiency o f the system, the voltage induced increase in pH due to hydrogen evolution would decrease the efficiency of the oxidizing agent formed. However, the h ighest nitrite removal was achieved at a current of 2 A and a complete remo val was attained after a duration of ten minutes. A first order reaction mo del was developed to predict the effect of current on nitrite removal. The energy consumption was directly proportional to the initial pH and the solu tion volume, while it was inversely proportional to the number of electrode s.