Taguchi Method and Response Surface Methodology in the Treatment of Highly Contaminated Tannery Wastewater Using Commercial Potassium Ferrate

Violetta Kozik; Krzysztof Barbusinski; Maciej Thomas; Agnieszka Sroda; Josef Jampilek; Aleksander Sochanik; Adam Smolinski; Andrzej Bak

doi:10.3390/ma12223784

Taguchi Method and Response Surface Methodology in the Treatment of Highly Contaminated Tannery Wastewater Using Commercial Potassium Ferrate

Materials (Basel). 2019 Nov 18;12(22):3784. doi: 10.3390/ma12223784.

Authors

Violetta Kozik¹, Krzysztof Barbusinski², Maciej Thomas³, Agnieszka Sroda¹, Josef Jampilek⁴, Aleksander Sochanik⁵, Adam Smolinski⁶, Andrzej Bak¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Chemistry, University of Silesia, Szkolna 9, 40-007 Katowice, Poland.
² Institute of Water and Wastewater Engineering, Silesian University of Technology, Konarskiego 18, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland.
³ Chemiqua Water&Wastewater Company, Skawinska 25/1, 31-066 Krakow, Poland.
⁴ Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Ilkovicova 6, 842 15 Bratislava, Slovakia.
⁵ Center for Translational Research and Molecular Biology of Cancer, Maria Sklodowska-Curie Memorial Cancer Center and Institute of Oncology, Wybrzeze AK 15, 44-101 Gliwice, Poland.
⁶ Department of Energy Saving and Air Protection, Central Mining Institute, Plac Gwarkow 1, 40 166 Katowice, Poland.

Abstract

The potential implementation of Envifer^®, a commercial product containing potassium ferrate (40.1% K₂FeO₄), for the purification of highly contaminated tannery wastewater from leather dyeing processes was proposed. The employment of the Taguchi method for optimization of experiments allowed the discoloration (98.4%), chemical oxygen demand (77.2%), total organic carbon (75.7%), and suspended solids (96.9%) values to be lowered using 1.200 g/L K₂FeO₄ at pH 3 within 9 min. The application of the central composite design (CCD) and the response surface methodology (RSM) with the use of 1.400 g/L K₂FeO₄ at pH 4.5 diminished the discoloration, the chemical oxygen demand, the total organic carbon, and suspended solids within 9 min. The Taguchi method is suitable for the initial implementation, while the RSM is superior for the extended optimization of wastewater treatment processes.

Keywords: Taguchi method; central composite design; response surface methodology; tannery wastewater.