INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LATEST TECHNOLOGY IN ENGINEERING,

MANAGEMENT & APPLIED SCIENCE (IJLTEMAS)

ISSN 2278-2540 | DOI: 10.51583/IJLTEMAS | Volume XV, Issue V, May 2026

The Application of Electrocoagulation in Textile Wastewater

Treatment- A Scoping Review of Recent Trends (2021-2025)

Subhane Sinna Lebbe¹, Abdul Rahim Nihmiya^2*, Udara S.P.R. Arachchige³

¹Department of Civil and Environmental Technology, Faculty of Technology, University of Sri

Jayewardenepura, Pitipana, Homagama, Sri Lanka

²Department of Civil and Environmental Technology, Faculty of Technology, University of Sri

Jayewardenepura, Pitipana, Homagama, Sri Lanka

³Department of Mechatronic and Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, NSBM Green

University, Pitipana, Homagama, Sri Lanka

DOI: https://doi.org/10.51583/IJLTEMAS.2026.150500263

Received: 27 May 2026; Accepted: 01 June 2026; Published: 23 June 2026

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, electrochemical wastewater treatment methods are receiving increasing interest among researchers

to overcome the limitations of conventional chemical and biological treatment methods. Electrocoagulation (EC)

is one of the methods that generates in-situ coagulants via electrically oxidizing a sacrificial anode. Through a

scoping review, this study aims to identify and analyse the state-of-the-art in EC application for the treatment of

synthetic textile dye effluents. This study was conducted following the PRISMA protocol on the Scopus database

from 2021 to 2025. This work mapped the research trend on EC, its application mechanism, and advancements

for improved efficiency. It further investigated the modelling techniques and hybrid technologies integrated with

electrocoagulation and identifies the research gap from the literature. The results show a steep increase in

publications over the years, with most originating in Asia, demonstrating to be effective in treating a wide range

of dyes. Several factors directly controls the electrochemical reactions and some indirectly affects the

performance. Overall, while EC treatment demonstrates strong performance at lab scale, most literature reviewed

in this study were conducted under controlled conditions with limited evidence for industrial scale feasibility for

long-term and continuous flow management. For optimization, RSM, with Central Composite, and Box-

Behnken Designs, is the most widely used modelling technique, and integration of advanced techniques such as

ozonation, the Fenton process, catalyst addition, and sonication shows the potential to achieve enhanced

wastewater treatment efficiency. Further integration of AI shows future direction towards enhance process

control in EC.

Keywords: Electrocoagulation; Scoping review; Textile dyes; Textile wastewater; Wastewater treatment

INTRODUCTION

The textile industry is a major global manufacturing sector and is the largest consumer of water. Production

processes like sizing, de-sizing, scouring, bleaching, mercerizing, dyeing, printing, and finishing use large

amounts of water, producing wastewater that contains salts, minerals, oils, metals, chemicals, and dyes.

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) reports, dyeing 1 kg of fabric

requires at least 40 L of freshwater. It also notes that 830 billion liters of freshwater are consumed annually,

generating 640 billion liters of wastewater (Basak, S; Pandit, P; Samanta, KK; Samanta, 2019; Thombre et al.,

2025). According to the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), producing a single cotton T-shirt

requires 2700 L of fresh water (Van Woensel & Lipp, 2020).

Among the various operations in textile manufacturing, dyeing is considered one of the most harmful units,

generating coloured wastewater that can cause severe damage to nearby waterbodies when released untreated

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(Navin & Mathur, 2018). According to the European Environmental Agency, the dyeing and finishing process

alone accounts for approximately 20% of global clean water pollution (European Parliament, 2021). Therefore,

proper treatment of effluent before releasing it into the environment is essential to protect the environment,

aquatic life, the natural balance, and human health.

Wastewater treatment refers to removing impurities, such as pollutants, coarse particles, toxicants, and potential

pathogens (Silva, 2023), from wastewater/sewage before releasing it into natural waterbodies (Archis Ambulkar

& Nathanson, 2025). Wastewater treatment is typically classified into several levels, including preliminary

screening (Silva, 2023), primary sedimentation, secondary biological treatment, and tertiary effluent polishing

(Archis Ambulkar & Nathanson, 2025; Senthil Kumar & Saravanan, 2017). In general, several methods are

employed in textile wastewater treatment. Adsorption, coagulation, membrane separation, flotation, ozonation,

ion exchange, evaporation, and crystallization are the commonly employed conventional treatment methods

(Senthil Kumar & Saravanan, 2017) which are not always effective (Ghasem et al., 2016) in removing textile

dyes, which often contain organic compounds and heavy metals.

Among these techniques, coagulation/flocculation is one of the most widely used treatment units in the water

industry (Jiang, 2015; Jo et al., 2024). However, there are several drawbacks in chemical coagulation as well,

including the generation of secondary pollutants and the production of large amounts of sludge (Sajath et al.,

2022). Moreover, in recent years, researchers have shown growing interest in electrochemical treatment

methods, including EF-electro flotation, ER-electrokinetic remediation, EC-electrocoagulation, and EO-

electrooxidation (Boinpally et al., 2023).

In addition to these, microbial fuel cells have also emerged as an electrochemical approach with

electrochemically active bacteria (Lepage et al., 2014). Since the conventional chemical coagulation method has

potential drawbacks, this review focuses on the electrocoagulation method, which provides a similar effect to

chemical coagulation but operates through multiple mechanisms, such as electrochemical kinetics, charge

transport, thermodynamics, and adsorption isotherms, all occurring simultaneously in the system (Gholami

Shirkoohi et al., 2022).

Electrocoagulation (EC)

The theory of EC has been explained by several authors (Bener et al., 2019; Mollah et al., 2001). Coagulation is

the core mechanism behind the EC phenomena. EC is an electrochemical process that involves an in-situ

coagulant generation mechanism via an electrically oxidizing metal anode, such as the commonly used Fe or Al.

Like chemical coagulation, metal hydroxides serve as coagulants in EC to efficiently adsorb and remove

dissolved pollutants from water and mineralizes and decomposes the suspended particles in the wastewater

effluent (Gasmi et al., 2022; Tanveer et al., 2022).

Initial application of electrocoagulation

The history of electrocoagulation, reported by Bharti et al. (Bharti et al., 2023), shows that EC was first

implemented in the United States in 1946. Then it was introduced in Russia, Europe, South America, and

elsewhere. Table 1 summarizes key developments in EC.

Table 1: Milestones of EC technology innovation, application, and global spread

Application

Year

Country/ Region

Colour removal from drinking water

1946

United States

Removal of inorganic compounds in industrial

wastewater

1970

Russia, Europe, and South America

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Implementation in the mining and metal processing

industries

1980

1984

1988

North America

London

Introduction of EC

Construction of a household wastewater treatment

facility

London

Even with the increasing literature, there is a lack of a comprehensive scoping review mapping the research

trends showing recent patterns on EC study, used modelling approaches, and integrated hybrid methods

applicable with EC for textile wastewater treatment. This study fills that gap by a scoping review of publications

retrieved from the Scopus database over 2021 to 2025

Research Design

This study adopted the scoping review method described by Barahmand & Eikeland (2022) to gather existing

knowledge from recent studies relevant to EC in textile wastewater treatment. A procedure scheme was planned,

as illustrated in Figure 1, outlining the key steps for systematically carrying out the review.

Fig. 1. Flowchart of literature review procedure detailing the key steps followed to gather and analyze the

recent studies on EC.

Initially, a keyword search was conducted in the Scopus database to identify all the relevant papers on EC. The

initial keywords were refined with multiple trials to enhance the search string and to capture the most relevant

papers. With the collection of a wide range of relevant studies, screening and sorting processes were performed

to clean and filter the corpus according to the PRISMA protocol. Table 2 presents the detailed paper selection

and screening process, including the number of papers retrieved at each step.

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Developing Search String:

1. The initial search was performed in the Scopus database using the relevant keywords, electrocoagulation and

textile, as initially defined. This search was conducted across article titles, abstracts and keywords, yielding

a total of 459 papers.

2. Next, the keyword tailoring was performed by altering the term “ electrocoagulation ” to “ (“electro

coagulation” OR electro-coagulation OR electrocoagulation) ”, yielding a few more documents and resulting

in 482 papers.

Table 2: Search string development and screening criteria for review on EC in textile wastewater treatment.

Title: Electrocoagulation in Textile Wastewater Treatment

Database: Scopus

Process

Date last accessed: 29.04.2025

No of

Scope: Electrocoagulation

Search String

electrocoagulation AND textile

Description

papers

459

Initial search results within article title,

abstract, and keywords

Tailoring the term electrocoagulation

482

410

420

( "electro coagulation" OR electro-coagulation OR

electrocoagulation ) AND textile

Adding another strong key word,

wastewater

( "electro coagulation" OR electro-coagulation OR

electrocoagulation ) AND textile AND wastewater

Identifying and

Searching developing

search string

Refining the keyword, wastewater

( "electro coagulation" OR electro-coagulation OR

electrocoagulation ) AND textile AND ( wastewater OR

"waste water" )

Adding more terms denoting dye/colour

removal

474

Limiting the search within title only

167

67

Screening the

search field

Screening the Limiting the papers to last 5 years

recent studies (2021 - 2025)

( electrocoagulation OR electro-coagulation OR "electro

coagulation" ) AND textile AND ( ( wastewater OR

"waste water" ) OR ( dye* OR colour OR color OR

decolour* OR decolor* ) )

51

Screening the

Limiting the search to article only

document type

Screening

Limitng the papers of irrelevency

49

Removing duplicate studies

48

46

Manual

screening

reliminating the papers with no access

Added relenvent papers manually

47

3. Then, another keyword, wastewater, was added to the search to strongly represent wastewater treatment,

reducing the number of papers by filtering out them containing this keyword, resulting in 410 documents.

4. The keyword “ wastewater ” was then refined to “ (wastewater OR “waste water”) ” due to usage variation,

adding 10 more documents to the results, bringing the total to 420.

5. Some papers were found without the term wastewater in their title, but with the terms dye removal, colour

removal, or decolouring, with variations in spelling due to American and British English, such as colour,

color, decolour, and decolor. Thus, all these terms were added with the keyword wastewater, using the OR

Boolean operator. This has captured 54 additional papers, bringing the total to 474 documents.

Once the search string was finalized, the screening process was started to sort and filter the papers.

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Screening Process

1. The search type was limited to the article titles, filtering out 167 documents.

2. Next, the most recent documents from the past 5 years were sorted, resulting in 67 total documents.

3. The document type was then screened to select only articles, eliminating conference papers and book

chapters from the collected documents published over the last five years, resulting in 51 papers.

4. Then, each paper underwent manual cleaning, and 2 non-relevant papers, 2 papers with no access, and a

duplicate paper were eliminated, bringing the number of papers to 46.

5. Additionally, 1 paper was added to the final corpus, bringing the total to 47.

This final corpus was used for reviewing the EC treatment process.

RESULTS

In this section, the selected latest papers on EC are categorized with available descriptive information.

Analysis by year

This analysis gives the status of available papers by year under the final refined search string development. No

studies on this topic were found on the Scopus database before 2002. In 2002, there was one publication. Starting

from 2002, the number of publications has increased each year. Figure 2 shows that the trend of publications

has increased over time in Scopus using the final search string applied only to the article title, disregarding the

abstracts and keywords that contain the same search string.

Documents by Year

25

20

15

10

5

0

Year

Fig. 2. Annual publication trend on electrocoagulation (EC) in Scopus from 2002 to 2025, showing increasing

research interest over time.

The data reveals a gradual increase in research interest in EC over time, as reflected in the growing number of

available publications. This rise in recent years is significantly higher than in the early years from 2002 to 2014

(1 to 7 papers) rising to 13 in 2019, and 14 in both 2020 and 2021. The year, 2024, shows the highest number of

publications (21 papers) with 5 paper until Feb, 2025. Occasional fluctuations was observed in 2018 (3 papers)

and 2022 (11 papers) reflecting a variability in research output. The overall analysis suggests that the research

interest will keep increasing in the coming years. From all these publications, the papers published in the last

five years (2021-2025) were selected for the review purpose of this study.

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Country-wise analysis

The publications between 2021 and 2025 were categorized based on the country-wise publication to see the trend

of global research interest. A total of 34 countries have been involved in this field of research. Among them,

India is the leading contributor with16 papers, followed by Brazil with 8 papers. All other countries contributed

even fewer. Moreover, the continent-wise summary shows significant research interest from all the continents,

while Asia has the highest level of research (51 publications), followed by Africa (13), South America (11),

North America (6), Europe (5), and Australia (3), reflecting a strong concentration in developing regions where

textile production is prominent.

Figure 3 illustrates a continent-wise summary of publications over the last five years, and Figure 4 shows the

publication trend of the top 10 countries that contributed to those publications in Scopus.

Documents by Continents

Asia

3

5

6

Africa

South America

11

North America

Europe

51

13

Australia

Fig. 3. Continent-wise distribution of studies (2021-2025) on electrocoagulation (EC) available on the Scopus

database.

Documents by Country/ Territory

India

Brazil

Turkey

Pakistan

Iraq

Iran

Indonesia

Ethiopia

Algeria

Saudi Arabia

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

Documents

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Fig. 4. Top 10 countries contributing to publications on electrocoagulation (EC) during 2021-2025

Classification based on document types

In this section, the publications of the last 5 years were further analyzed based on the type of literature.

Documents by Type

Book chapters

6%

Conference…

Articles

76%

Fig. 5. Types of available literature on electrocoagulation (EC) in Scopus from 2021 to 2025

There are 3 types of literature available in the form of articles, conference papers, and book chapters, which is

given and Figure 5, representing their percentages. The type of document selected for the reviewing purpose of

this study was only articles.

Classification based on subject area

Additionally, the final classification was done on the selected papers in search of identifying the subject areas

involved in this research, and the following Figure 6 illustrates the key area of the selected papers under the

categories of different subject areas.

Fig. 6. Classification of publications on electrocoagulation (EC) based on subject areas such as chemistry,

engineering and environmental science.

DISCUSSION

Types of dyes treated with EC

The literature demonstrates that EC has been widely applied to treat a wide range of dyes in textile wastewater.

Studies have been carried out on both synthetic single dye as well as real textile effluents. (Refer to the summary

at Appendix-A). Studies on synthetic dyes include reactive dyes, acidic dyes, basic dyes, vat dyes, direct dyes,

disperse dyes, and indicators. From the final corpus, the most available studies are on reactive dyes suggesting

their extensive use in the textile industry. Vat dyes are another widely used class used for denim colouring,

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highlighting the relevance of EC for treating denim effluent. On the other hand, disperse dyes are reported

relatively less in the literature, suggesting they are less widely used in the industry compared to reactive dyes

whereas succesful to treat through EC. Likewise, acid dyes and basic dyes are also available in the literature

under EC studies. Meanwhile some researchers have also studied EC to treat indicator dyes as well. Most of

these dye classes including reactive, direct, acid, and disperse dyes belong to the Azo dye group which contain

N=N linkage producing vibrant range in colours. These dyes are used to colour different fabrics, and each dye

has its own specific chemical structure, functional groups, molecular complexity, and reactivity. The

effectiveness of EC and optimal operational conditions can vary depending on the specific characteristics of each

dye. A study by Omwene & Keyikoğlu (2023) demonstrates how the treatment efficiency differs among different

dyes under the same operational condition.

Moreover, a number of studies focused on synthetically prepared wastewater containing a single dye to identify

operational conditions and EC-based dye removal efficiency. However, a significant number of studies have

examined real textile wastewater which contains a mix of dyes and chemical effluents. Thus, studying each dye

type is important for evaluating EC performance on that dye. In contrast, studying real textile wastewater is

essential for assessing EC performance in practical industrial applications.

Factors affecting EC performance

EC mechanism is controlled by several factors. The primary factors including type of electrode material, applied

voltage/ current density, electrolysis time, concentration of the added electrolyte causing initial conductivity of

the effluent, inter-electrode distance, and initial pH of the effluent, are the main dominant parameters that directly

effect the electrochemical reaction process. On the other hand, there are some secondary factors such as volume

of the effluent, flow rate of the effluent, electrode configuration, and mixing speed that do not directly control

the EC performance but indirectly influences the impacts of the primary factors, depending on system design.

The secondary factors are crucial when scaling-up the treatment unit for practical application from lab-scale

treatment. As in the literature, researchers have studied, varying the primary factors to identify the optimal

conditions to achieve the maximum dye removal efficiency.

In EC, the main material that generates coagulant agent that treats the pollutant is the sacrificial anode metal.

The literature shows that Aluminium (Asfaha, 2022; Bünyamin, 2023; Gasmi et al., 2022; Guillermo et al., 2022;

Houssini et al., 2021; Hussain et al., 2023; Lach et al., 2022; Lamhar et al., 2024, 2025) and Iron (Bünyamin,

2023; Guillermo et al., 2022; Houssini et al., 2021; Hussain et al., 2023) are the mostly used electrode materials

since the widely used conventional coagulants in wastewater treatment are Aluminium and Iron Chloride salts.

Moreover, the metal ions with higher valence charges are most preferred in EC to effectively compress the

electrical double layer to improve the pollutant coagulation. Thus, Al and Fe metals are commonly accepted as

standard metal anodes for their good coagulant properties, their multivalent ions and also their high availability

at low cost (Garcia-segura et al., 2017). In this regard, some researchers have studied, waste iron slag (Maman,

Conrado, et al., 2022) and scrap iron (Maman, Behling, et al., 2022) from foundries, as well as recycled and non-

recycled waste aluminium cans (Elhadeuf, Bougdah, Balaska, et al., 2023) as cost effective electrodes.

Nevertheless, some studies investigated, alternative electrode materials including copper (Hussain et al., 2023),

mild steel (Jegathambal et al., 2024), and titanium-coated aluminium (Jegathambal et al., 2024). However, the

optimal conditional values of the operating parameters differ based on the material used as the electrode.

The applied voltage/current density is one of the most influential parameters directly affecting the dissolution

rate of the sacrificial anode, and thereby controlling coagulant generation and dye removal efficiency. An

increase in applied voltage can result in higher current density leading better coagulation performance at the

same time leading to higher power consumption (Abdulhadi et al., 2019). Researchers have found a varied

optimal current density value such that 0.83 mA/cm²was applied by Omwene et al. (Omwene & Keyikoğlu,

2023) while 50 mA/cm²by Guillermo et. Al. (Guillermo et al., 2022), each based on the specific treatment setup

with different other parameter values. Therefore, investigating optimal current density is important considering

dye removal efficiency meanwhile investigating the other parameters to reduce energy consumption.

The treatment time has the effect in achieving the higher efficiency because with time the formation of cations

from the electrode (anode) increase and hence the hydroxide species increase. As a result the efficiency increases

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(Gonçalves et al., 2016). However, some studies (Hussain et al., 2023; Sinna Lebbe et al., 2026) show a decline

in treatment efficiency with prolonged electrolysis time after a certain point, which will also affect negatively

with operating cost. Therefore, optimizing the electrolysis time is an important parameter to achieve the

maximum EC efficiency.

Adding various types of salts as supporting electrolytes (e.g., NaCl (Elhadeuf, Bougdah, Balaska, et al., 2023;

Lach et al., 2022; Maman, Behling, et al., 2022; Maman, Conrado, et al., 2022) KCL (Lamhar et al., 2024, 2025),

and Na₂SO₄(Hussain et al., 2023)) has a passive effect on dye removal efficiency. In general, an electrolyte is

usually used to increase the solution conductivity in EC because of the ion concentration, which will reduce the

electrical resistance and enhance the current flow. However, excessive electrolyte addition may lead to secondary

pollution and operational cost. Therefore, this need to be optimised to ensure the EC efficiency.

The inter electrode distance directly effects the solution resistance and the energy consumption of EC due to its

influence in the electric field strength. smaller electrode gap is generally considered to give stronger electric

field, and lower resistance affecting the rate of electrode dissolution and coagulant generation. However,

considering the short-circuiting and clogging concerns, optimization of this factor is very important.

Initial pH is another factor that determines which kind of coagulant agents are produced from the anode based

on the pH level of the solution. A study by Guillermo et al. (Guillermo et al., 2022) shows higher removal

efficiency at pH 10 with Fe electrodes and at pH 4 with Al electrodes. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate the

effect of the initial pH based on the specific conditions of the studies.

Performance indicators to assess electrocoagulation efficiency

To identify the effectiveness of the EC treatment, researchers have used several performance metrics such as

dye removal efficiency, COD removal, turbidity removal, TOC removal, TSS removal, phenol removal,

electricity consumption, energy consumption, electrode consumption, operating cost, and sludge formation.

These matrices can be classified into categories such as pollutant removal-based performance indicators,

operational performance indicators, as well as economic performance indicators.

Dye removal efficiency is one of the most widely reported pollutant removal indicators that shows how clear the

coloured wastewater gets after the treatment process, since the primary objective of the EC treatment in textile

wastewater is stabilizing the dye pollutants to trap them and getting colourless water as a result.

However, the real textile effluent consists of complex types of pollutants, sizing agents, detergents, finishing

chemicals, etc. Therefore, the colour removal alone doesn’t indicate the complete water purification, as the

colourless effluent still may contain dissolved organic matter and suspended impurities. In this case, some other

common parameters are important to evaluate the treatment efficiency. Those are chemical oxygen demand

(COD) which measures the total amount of oxygen required to chemically oxidize the organic and inorganic

substances in the wastewater, total organic carbon (TOC) which measures the total amount of carbon present in

the organic compounds, turbidity which measures the cloudiness of the effluent due to the fine colloids present

in the water, and total suspended solids (TSS) which measures the total mass of the solid particles suspended in

the wastewater. In addition, some studies by Maman, Behling, et al. (2022) and Maman, Conrado, et al. (2022)

have reported phenol removal through EC treatment, specifically in real textile denim effluents, as phenol is one

of the finishing chemicals and its removal is another indicator for the detoxification of the treated effluent.

In addition to the pollutant removal, the operational and economic performance indicators evaluate the technical

and economic feasibility of the EC process. Electricity/energy consumption evaluates the amount of electrical

energy consumed to treat a unit volume of wastewater or to treat a unit volume of pollutant. This is directly

influenced by applied current density, treatment time, and the electrode material. Although a higher applied

potential enhances pollutant removal efficiency (Sinna Lebbe et al., 2026), it will result in increased energy

consumption leading to higher operating costs. Electrode consumption indicates how much the sacrificial anode

dissolves during the EC process. When the electrode consumption is excessive, the sludge formation will be

higher, as well as the operating costs.

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Overall, the efficiency of EC requires optimization among all these performance metrics, to attain the maximum

effectiveness in practical applications.

Types of Modelling techniques Integrated with EC

From the selected literature, some studies were identified where researchers have integrated modelling

techniques along with EC for process optimization. The statistical modelling techniques found were RSM

(Houssini et al., 2021) with Central Composite Design (Gasmi et al., 2022; Tanyol et al., 2021), Box Behnken

Design (Asfaha, 2022; Guillermo et al., 2022), and Factorial Experiment Design (Lach et al., 2022). These

models were fitted to a second-order polynomial regression to capture the relationship between the operational

factors influencing the EC mechanism.

The common independent variables studied were pH, current density, electrolysis time, dye concentration, and

electrolyte concentration, in order to draw the response for colour removal, COD, turbidity and energy

consumption. Several software applications, such as Design-Expert, Minitab, Statistica, Statgraphics Centurion,

and JMP.11, are used for model building and for model validation, ANOVA, R², adjusted R², predicted R²,

adequate precision, Spearman correlation, Tukey's test, lack of fit tests, coefficient of variation, normal

percentage probability plot, and experimental vs. predicted values comparison were used.

These modelling approaches were used to optimize operating parameters, maximize removal efficiency,

minimize operational cost and energy consumption, and to understand the interactions among the operational

parameters.

Hybrid approaches integrated with electrocoagulation

Publications from the selected corpus indicate that researchers are increasingly focusing on several

advancements for an effective and efficient water treatment method through the application of EC integrated

with some advanced technologies and with some hybrid approaches for enhanced treatment results. From the

selected studies, 57% of the publications demonstrate a combination of EC with other technologies.

Several studies are exploring EC integrated with advanced oxidation processes. Tanveer et al. (2022)

investigated the treatment efficiency of EC combined with AOPs such as ozonation, Fenton, and photo-Fenton

processes in textile dye removal. Similarly, the same treatment for EC with Photo electro‐Fenton Processes was

studied by Moazeni et al. (2023), and EC with electro-Fenton was also studied by Agarwal (2024). There was

another study by Domínguez et al. (2022), which explores EC combined with oxidation through oxygen and

ozone, and Javed et al. (Javed et al., 2025) also studied hybrid ZIF-67 catalyzed ozonation coupled with EC.

Martínez et al. (2024) further investigated the effect of high-rate aeration in EC; meanwhile, Asfaha et al. (2022)

investigated hybrid electrocoagulation and electrooxidation processes. Then, EC and anodic oxidation were

studied by Sugha et al. (2025). Ángeles et al. (2025) analyzed the sequence of textile washing treatment with

ozonolysis, EC, and electrooxidation. In terms of enhancing the floatation in EC, Abdulrazzaq et al. (2021)

applied air microbubbles for enhanced treatment. Isawi et al. (2024) demonstrate a combined EC/Flotation

technique with membrane desalination.

Moreover, Agarwal et al. (2024) integrated EC and electrooxidation to treat textile wastewater to fit for

biological remediation, and Ghosh et al. (2024) approached a hybrid treatment method comprising anaerobic

digestion and EC. Bulca et al. (2021) investigated the hybrid wastewater treatment method by evaluating the

performance of absorption after EC and the performance of catalytic wet air oxidation (CWAO) after EC.

Similarly, the integrated EC and adsorption treatment method was studied by Somasundaram et al. (2024) and

Jegathambal & Gafoor (2021) as well. In another study, Selvaraj & Arivazhagan (2024) examined the integration

of EC and adsorption by algal-activated carbon.

Pacheco et al. (2023) proposed the addition of a bio-coagulant from Pithaya peel, and Yazdandoust et al. (2024)

proposed the addition of Moringa oleifera seed extract for EC enhancement. Ahmed et al. (2024) evaluated the

impact of seawater integration on EC. Other novel approaches by Kalia et al. (2023) explored hybrid

electrocoagulation and laccase-mediated treatment. Conversely, Góes et al. (2021) studied EC combined with

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conventional flocculation by adding Pectin and SDS as flocculants. Another study by Arshad et al. (2023)

explored the combination of chemical coagulation with EC. While Abdelshafi & Sadik (2021) examined EC

integrated with granular activated carbon filtration, and another similar study was conducted by Elhadeuf et al.

(2023), who combined micro-filtration with EC.

Moreover, an EC combined sonication process called sono-EC was optimized by Manikandan & Saraswathi

(2023) and Karthikeyan & Vijayachitra (2021) developed an IoT monitoring system with sensors for the EC

reactor. These advanced technological innovations were explored to further improve the efficient control of EC.

Research gaps and future directions

This study reveals that the lack of large-scale study for industrial application as most of the studies were

conducted at lab-scale. Also, the literatures lack the long-term and continuous flow performance report. The

majority of the studies were conducted in batch reactor where the operating cost and efficiency will differ from

the large scale set up with continuous flow. Therefore, future studies should focus on for assisting practical

implementation. Moreover, most of the studies lack sludge characterization, this should be analysed as in EC a

significant amount of metallic sludge will be generated. Also, electrode passivation is rarely assessed and it

should be assessed through long term and continuous flow treatment system. The integration of IoT by

Manikandan & Saraswathi (2023) and Karthikeyan & Vijayachitra (2021) represents the promising direction

towards AI-enhanced system control. However, this sector needs to be studies further.

CONCLUSION

The scoping review has comprehensively explored the recent trend in the application of electrocoagulation to

treat dye pollutants from textile wastewater from 2021 to 2025. The reviewed literature demonstrates that

electrocoagulation is effective in treating a wide range of textile dyes. However, the optimal condition varies

depending on the type of dye being treated and the electrode material used. Therefore, each study with a new

dye or with a new electrode material requires specific optimisation to find the optimal working condition with

maximum efficiency. The selection of performance indicators whether pollutant removal, economic

performance, or operational performance was found to depend on the nature of the wastewater selected for study,

such as a synthetic single dye wastewater and a real textile effluent. However, for real industrial applications, a

combination of all the performance indicators should be considered for practical implementation. Modelling

approaches mostly RSM have been applied to effectively interpret the outcomes of the experiments. Moreover,

a growing number of studies report the integration of electrocoagulation with some other advanced water

treatment techniques to achieve an improved treatment performance. Despite the available studies on both

synthetic and real industrial effluent, most studies were carried out at lab-scale and larger-scale continuous flow

performance assessment remains unexplored to support industrial application. The future works should priorities

long run and performance reporting frameworks. Further integration of AI-based process control system and

sustainable electrode materials has the potential for advanced and viable industrial application.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors appreciate the Research Council, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka for funding the

project through University Research Grant No "RC/URG/TEC/2026/62"

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treatment using ozonolysis, electro-coagulation, and electro-oxidation. Electrochimica Acta, 512,

145473. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.ELECTACTA.2024.145473

69. Yazdandoust, M., Ehrampoush, M. H., & Dalvand, A. (2024). Moringa oleifera seed extract assisted

electrocoagulation process for efficient direct dye removal from textile wastewater: Modelling,

optimisation and techno-economic study. International Journal of Environmental Analytical Chemistry,

104(11), 2485–2505. https://doi.org/10.1080/03067319.2022.2062240

Appendix-A: Summary of selected studies on EC for textile dye removal.

Operating condition

(at optimum)

Type of Performance metrics

electrod

e

Treated

dye

Ref.

Applied current = 1.5 A

Flow rate = 150 mL.min^-1

Ti

Colour removal efficiency= 92.1%

coated COD removal = 70%

Al

Mild

steel

Real Textile

wastewter,

India

Flow rate = 50 mL.min^-1

Applied current = 1.5 A

Colour removal efficiency = 95.11%

COD removal = 70%

pH = 3

Al

Fe

Al

Color = 95.49

COD = 89.34

Turbidity = 92.18%

Current density = 50 A/m²

Conductivity = 250 μS/cm

Mixing speed = 250 rpm

Remazol

Ultra Red

RGB

(reactive red

239)

Electricity consumption = 11.48 kWh/m³

Energy consumption = 0.56 kg/m³

Color = 99.94%

pH = 5

Current density = 75 A/m²

Conductivity = 500 μS/cm

Mixing speed = 250 rpm

COD = 66.83%

Turbidity = 83.15%

Electricity consumption = 6.60 kWh/m³

Energy consumption = 0.46 kg/m³

Color = 99.07%

pH = 9

Electrolysis time = 36.26 min

voltage = 4 V

COD = 63.05%

Turbidity = 96.31%

Denim

textile

Operational cost = 0.47 USD/m³

wastewater, No. of electrodes = 2

Monastir

City,

Electrode size = 90×35 mm²

×1mm

Tunisia

Submerged depth of electrode = 5

cm

Reactor volume = 400 ml

Current intensity = 4 A

Electrolyte = 2.0 g/L NaCl

Mixing speed = 600 rpm

Electrode size = 100×40×1 mm³

Submerge depth of electrode = 78

mm

Al

Color removal = 96.5%

TOC removal = 93.5%

COD removal = 85.0%

Reactive

Red 231

(RR231) azo

dye

Reactor volume = 1 L

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Current density = 32.95 mA.cm^{− 2}Al

Initial pH = 3

Color removal = 89%

TOC removal = 47%

Dye concentration = 600 mg/L

Vivizol Red Electrolysis time = 25 min

3BS reactiveNo. of electrodes = 4

COD removal = 76%

Operating cost > 5.80 US$/m³

dye (VR

(2 anode & 2 cathode)

3BS 150%) Electrode size = 6.5x 2.5cm²x 0.1

cm (effective surface of 65

cm²)

Mixing speed = 150 r.p.m

Reactor volume = 600 mL

pH = 7.5-8.7 (unadjusted)

Iron slagColor removal = 85%

Commercial Electrolysis time = 25 min

indigo blue Electrolyte = 1 g/L NaCl

Phenol removal = 100%

dye

Reactor volume = 3 L

At room temperature (20-25 °C)

pH = 7.5-8.7 (unadjusted)

Electric current = 0.3 A

Electrolysis time = 60 min

Electrolyte = 1 g/L NaCl

Reactor volume = 3 L

At room temperature (20-25 °C)

Electric current = 9.0 A

Electrolysis time = 120 min

Electrode size = 12×9 cm

Reactor volume = 3 L

Color removal = 80%

Turbidity removal = 91%

Phenol removal = 100%

COD removal = 55%

TOC removal = 73%

Real textile

denim

effluent,

Erechim-

RS, Brazil

Scrap

Iron

Color removal = 95%

Phenol removal = 96%

Commercial

indigo blue

dye

Electrode spacing = 10 cm

Electrolyte = 1 g/L NaCl

Electric current = 0.6 A

Color removal = 92%

Turbidity removal = 97%

Phenol removal = 100%

COD removal = 55%

TOC removal = 65%

Real textile Electrolysis time = 90 min

denim

effluent, ,

Brazil

Electrode size = 12×9 cm

Reactor volume = 3 L

Electrode spacing = 10 cm

Electrolyte = 1 g/L NaCl

pH = 4

Al

Fe

COD removal = 89.92 %

Turbidity removal = 99.75%

Current density = 50 mA/cm²

Electrode size = 10 × 5 cm

Interelectrode distance = 3 cm

Reactor volume = 0.7 L

Mixing speed = 400 rpm

pH = 10

Real textile

wastewater,

Arequipa-

Peru city

COD removal = 86.38%

Turbidity removal = 97.67%

Current density = 50 mA/cm²

Electrode size = 10 × 5 cm

Interelectrode distance = 3 cm

Reactor volume = 0.7 L

Mixing speed = 400 rpm

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Current density = 17.08 mA/cm²

Operating time = 20 min

pH = 9

electrolyte concentration = 2 g/L

Mixing speed = 100 rpm

(6 cm propeller stirrer)

Fe

Al

Fe

Colour removal = 95%

Energy consumption = 5.45 kWh/kg

Operating cost = 83.879 $/m³

Electrode area = 70 cm²

Interelectrode distance = 1 cm

Dye concentration = 40 g/L

Current density = 25 mA/cm²

Operating time = 60 min

pH = 4

Reactive

blue and

disperse red

74 dye

Colour removal = 93%

Energy consumption = 5 kWh/kg

Operating cost = 126.23 $/m³

electrolyte concentration = 2.5 g/L

Mixing speed = 100 rpm

(6 cm propeller stirrer)

Electrode area = 70 cm²

Interelectrode distance = 1 cm

Dye concentration = 40 g/L

pH = 5.86

Colour removal = 82.55%

Current density = 13.31 mA/cm²

Electrolysis time = 115.80 min

Electrode size = 50 mm × 80 mm

Interelectrode distance = 4 cm

Reactor volume = 500 mL

Temperature = 20 °C

Sludge formation = 0.928 kg/m³

Electrode consumption = 0.0305 kg/m³

Energy consumption = 7.461 kWh/m³

Operating cost = 0.79 US$/ m³

Indigo

carmine dye

Mixing speed = 200 rpm

Dye concentration = 20.01 mg/L

Electrolyte = 1.46 g/L NaCl

pH = 4

Fe

Al

Cu

Al

Colour removal = 93%

COD removal = 91%

Colour removal = 82%

COD removal = 51%

Colour removal = 70%

COD removal = 56%

Colour removal = 98.13%

Operating cost = 0.25 $/kg dye at

0.0502mA/cm²

Current density = 0.025 A/cm²

Dye concentration = 5 ppm

Electrolysis time = 15 min

Electrolyte = 1 g/L Na₂SO₄

Reactive

Orange 16

Dye concentration = 50 mg/L

Electrolyte = 1 g/L NaCl

Initial conductivity = 2015.8 μs/cm

Electrolysis time = 15 mins

Current density = 0.83 mA/cm²

Mixing speed = 100 rpm

Disperse

Orange 30

Colour removal = 91.98%

Operating cost = 0.647 $/kg dye at

0.0502mA/cm²

Acid Blue

324

No of electrodes = 5 (3 anode & 2

cathode)

Electrode size = 20 x 6 (cm x cm)

Interelectrode distance = 1 cm

Reactor volume = 500 ml

Colour removal = 47.46 %

Operating cost = 0.764 $/kg dye at

0.0502mA/cm²

Colour removal = 82.60%

Operating cost = 0.55 $/kg dye at

0.0502mA/cm²

Basic

Yellow 28

Reactive

Black 5

Colour removal = 92.55%

Operating cost = 0.274 $/kg dye at

0.0502mA/cm²

Vat Brown

1

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Electrode size = 16cm x 0.95cm

Al, Zn, COD = 92.09% (Al–C pair)

dia

C, Cu,

Mild

steel

TSS = 99.66% (Al–Cu pair)

Turbidity = 99.17% (Al-MS pair)

TOC = 70.99% (SS-SS pair)

Al–Zn is efficient overall:

(surface area = 42 cm²)

Electrode spacing = 10 cm

Real textile At room temperature (25 ◦C)

(ms),

effluent,

Reactor volume = 1L

stainless TSS = 99.32%

steel (ss)Turbidity = 98.88%

COD = 68.62%

Bangladesh Electrolyte = 1g/L of table salt

Voltage supply = 20V

Initial current = 0.9 A

TOC = 57.96%

Initial current density = 15.0 A/m²

Electrolysis time = 60 min

Recirculation flowrate = 70 Lh⁻¹

Current intensity = 100 mA

Electrolysis time = 34.6 min

No. of electrodes = 10 pairs

Al

Dye removal= 70.9%

Energy consumption= 4.6 Wh.m⁻³

Active electrode area = 621 cm²

Reactive

Black 5

Electrolyte = KCl

Initial conductivity = 2400 μS/cm

Dye concentration = 10 mg/L

Electrode size = 50cm x 2cm x

0.2cm

Reactor volume = 9.445 L

Electrode spacing = 14 mm

Initial pH = 8

Electrode spacing = 1 cm

Electrolysis time = 35 min

Current intensity = 0.25 A

Al from Dye removal= 99.76%

recycled Treatment cost = 2.4x10^-5$ /L

cans

Electrolyte = 1 g/L NaCl

Initial pH = 8

Azucryl red

(AR)

Al from Dye removal= 94.16%

Electrode spacing = 1 cm

Electrolysis time = 60 min

Current intensity = 0.25 A

Electrolyte = 1 g/L NaCl

Current intensity = 1 A

Electrolysis time = 32.5 min

Flowrate = 65.5 L/h

No. of electrodes = 9 pairs

(surface area of 621 cm²)

Electrolyte = 1.85 g/L KCl

Initial conductivity = 2400 μS/cm

Dye concentration = 100 mg/L

pH = 7

non-

recycled

cans

Treatment cost = 4.4x10^-6$ /L

Al

Decolorization = 42.72%

Energy consumption = 26 Wh/m³

Total foam volume = 166.92 cm³

Foam in last compartment = 5.24 cm³

Reactive

Black 5

Initial pH = 3.0

Fe

Energy consumption = 0.187 kWh/m3

Current density = 32.43 A/m²

Electrolyte = 8.0 g/L NaCl

Reaction time = 20 minutes

Reactor volume = 500 ml

Effective electrode area = 30.84

cm²

anode, Removal efficiencies:

Al P = 100%

cathode Cr(VI) = 89.97 %

Sb(V) =66.90%

Real textile

wastewater,

East China

Energy consumption = 0.187 kWh/m³

Operating cost = 0.815 USD/m³

Interelectrode distance = 1cm

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Electrolysis Time = 45 mins

Mixing speed = 400 rpm

StainlessColor removal = 100%

steel 304DOC removal = 92%

Real textile

wastewater,

Brazil

Reactor volume = 800 ml

L

Turbidity removal = 99.53%

H₂ production = up to 89.87% v/v

Energy consumption = 19.02–55.74 kWh/m³

H₂

Electrode size = 100 x 50 x 2 mm³

Electrode size = 3 cm × 5 cm × 2

mm

Electrode distance = 8 cm

Electrolyte = 1 g/L NaCl

Electrolysis time = 10 mins

COD removal = 29.32%

Navy blue

dye (AM-

16)

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