Development of an Advanced Inspection of the Degradation of Volatile Organic Compounds in Electrochemical Water Treatment of Paint-Industrial Water Effluents

This study presents a compact system developed to treat paint-industrial water contaminated by the residues of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) using hybrid electrothermochemical wastewater treatment technology. Different treatment parameters (sample dilution, working current) were studied, and the power of the removal was expressed by the removal efficiency factor. It was shown that for all of the VOCs, significant removal was obtained with dilution 1:3 (industrial water: deionized water, V:V) and electric current set at 30 A. For advanced inspection of the treatment process, a simple and solventless method has been developed and validated, using headspace sampling combined with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Parameters affecting the headspace sampling efficiency were thoroughly studied, including the temperature, time, and mixing rate. The proposed method was partially validated utilizing the selected sampling parameters. The limits of detection ranged between 0.19 µg/L and 4.02 μg/L. The validated analytical method was an efficient tool for the inspection of residual VOCs in paint-industrial water and treated water samples. The new electrochemical water treatment was shown to be helpful in the paint industry’s effluent reuse.