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Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic Pollutants in Wastewater

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Abstract

Even today the efficient treatment of industrial wastewaters is not evident. The effluents may contain large amounts of harmful organic compounds that are not easily removed with conventional methods. This study focuses on the photocatalytic treatment of four organic pollutants originated from different types of industry. The pollutants are diuron (herbicide), p-coumaric acid (agro-industrial wastewater), bisphenol A and phthalic anhydride (plasticizers), which all are widely used and cause significant health and environmental problems. To get deeper understanding, the photocatalytic degradation of the model molecules was studied both in synthetic solutions and in industrial wastewater matrix over TiO2 P25 in two different batch photoreactors under UV-A irradiation. The effects of catalyst loading, pH and initial concentration were studied. To gain understanding on the reactivity of molecules and costs of treatment, the kinetic modelling and energy modelling were compared and the specific applied energy (ESAE) was estimated. ESAE is proposed as a useful value to estimate the energy needed to degrade one mole of pollutant and further to calculate the operating costs to treat the wastewater. Of the model pollutants, diuron was removed the most efficiently and its removal consumed the least amount of energy in terms of the specific applied energy. Bisphenol A was found to be the most difficult to be removed by photocatalysis. The industrial wastewater matrix affected negatively the removal results.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the Academy of Finland [AOPI project (263580) from AKVA Programme] and the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, Tekes, [HYMEPRO (40262/11) and ImPhoNa (40238/11) projects] for financial support. The manufacturer of active pharmaceutical ingredients is acknowledged for providing the industrial wastewater for the experiments. In addition, Finnish Doctoral Programme in Environmental Science and Technology (EnSTe), is acknowledged for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Technology, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, University of Oulu, P.O.Box 4300, 90014, Oulu, Finland

    Minna Pirilä, Mohammed Saouabe, Satu Ojala, Buddhika Rathnayake, Fabien Drault, Anna Valtanen, Mika Huuhtanen & Riitta L. Keiski

  2. Water Quality and Treatment, University of Poitiers, 9 Rue Charles-Claude Chenou, 86000, Poitiers, France

    Fabien Drault

  3. University of Chouaïb Doukkali, Avenue Jabrane Khalil Jabrane, B.P.299, 24000, El Jadida, Morocco

    Rachid Brahmi

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  1. Minna Pirilä
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Correspondence to Minna Pirilä.

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Pirilä, M., Saouabe, M., Ojala, S. et al. Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic Pollutants in Wastewater. Top Catal 58, 1085–1099 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11244-015-0477-7

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