Treatment of textile wastewaters by electrocoagulation using iron and of aluminum electrode materials has been investigated in this paper. The effects of relevant wastewater characteristics such as conductivity and pH, and important process variables such as current density and operating time on the chemical oxygen demand (COD) and turbidity removal efficiencies have been explored. Furthermore, the electrode and energy consumptions for each electrode have been calculated. The results show that iron is superior to aluminum as sacrificial electrode material, from COD removal efficiency and energy consumption points. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.