If an industrial effluent has 200mg/L chlorides, 350mg/L of phosphates and pH=7.5, what is the procedure to prepare Pourbaix diagram for a electrochemical reactor using Iron electrodes?
What reaction are you going to carry out in your reactor? Keep in mind, that Pourbaix diagram is based on thermodynamic properties and does not describe quantitatively the speciation in the system.
The removal of chloride and phosphate are NOT chemical reaction. The reaction is A + B -> C + D. The Pourbaix diagram in your system is likely to be 4-dimensional.
Meanwhile, if anode potential is sufficiently high, secondary reactions may occur also, suchas direct oxidation of organic compounds and of Cl− ions present in wastewater:
2Cl− → Cl2 + 2e (3)
The chlorine produced is a strong oxidant that can oxidize same organic compounds and promote electrode reactions. In addition, the cathode, may be chemically attacked by OH− ions generated during H2 evolution at high pH values [25]:
2Al + 6H2O + 2OH− → 2Al(OH) 4− + 3H2 (4) Al3+(aq) and OH− ions generated by electrode reactions (1) and (2) react to form various mono-meric species such as Al(OH)2+, Al(OH) 2+, Al2(OH)2 4+, Al(OH) 4−, and polymeric species such as Al6(OH)15 3+, Al7(OH)17 4+, Al8(OH)20 4+, Al13 O4(OH)24 7+, Al13(OH)34 5+, which transform finally into Al(OH)3 according to complex precipitation kinetics.
On the other hand, electrogenerated ferric ions may form monomeric ions, ferric hy-
droxo complexes with hydroxide ions and polymeric species, depending on the pH range.