Combined electrocoagulation and photocatalytic for oily wastewater treatment using TiO2 nano-catalysts

Al-Rubaiey, Najem Abdulkadhim; Albrazanjy, Mohammed Gazi; Kadhim, Wafaa A.

doi:10.21608/ejchem.2021.89321.4286

Combined electrocoagulation and photocatalytic for oily wastewater treatment using TiO2 nano-catalysts

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Petroleum Technology Dept., University of Technology-Iraq, Baghdad, Iraq

² Petroleum Technology Department, University of Technology-Iraq, Baghdad, Iraq

³ Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials Research Center, University of Technology-Iraq, Baghdad, Iraq

10.21608/ejchem.2021.89321.4286

Abstract

Photocatalytic process, as an environmental application aspect is a relatively novel subject with tremendous potential in the upcoming future. This oxidation process with light and semiconductors have gained an unusual research attention as a functioning water and wastewater cleansing procedure due to its high efficiency in disintegrating and mineralizing various dangerous contaminants as well as the prospect of exploiting the UV-Vis. spectrum of the sun. On the other hand, electrocoagulation has been proven to be an effective procedure to remove wide range of pollutants. In the current study, a photocatalytic and electrochemical combined treatment using synthetic oily wastewater with TiO2 suspensions were tested. Turbidity was used to monitor the pollutants degradation. A number of parameters have been evaluated such as pH, applied voltage, and temperature. Both photocatalytic and electrochemical processes were applied to carry out comparative studies to treat the waste. The idea of doing this work was the modification of the electrochemical system for combination with the oxidation process for oily wastewater treatment approach in order to reduce the organic content of COD and treat the color. Our study here exhibited a noticeable enhancement in treatment efficiency of water quality in terms of turbidity, color, and COD under optimal conditions. The contribution to COD removal from EC process and EC-PC combined processes revealed that EC alone resulted in COD removal of 58%, while EC-PC contributed with 70% of COD removal. Both processes were effective in reducing oils 98%, color 99.5%, turbidity 99.9%, COD 80%, BOD 60%, Phenols 95% and Sulphides.

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