Restrepo Mejía, Ana PatriciaArango Ruiz, Álvaro de JesúsGarcés Giraldo, Luís Fernando2012-07-112012-07-112012-07-111909-0455http://hdl.handle.net/10567/514Electro coagulation is a clean technology known since the very beginning of the 20th Century, and has been applied on the treatment of diverse waste waters. Despite this, electro coagulation has not been widely developed and there is still a lot of research to be made concerning its processes and mechanisms. In this article we make a review of electro coagulation, showing its historical evolution, discussing about its challenges and opportunities, presenting its potential applications, its advantages and, finally, proposing the reaction mechanisms and the design and operation of the reactors. From this perspective, electro coagulation turns into an electric and chemical process that can be successful when applied by optimizing the factors that conform it, thus achieving the goal of protecting, keeping and recovering the water resources.esElectrocoagulaciónCorporación Universitaria LasallistaÁrea Metropolitana del Valle de AburráElectrocoagulaciónAguas residualesTratamiento de aguas residualesContaminación del aguaArticle