Degradation Studies of Organic Pollutants

Organic pollutants which are present in industrial wastewater discharge are recalcitrant in nature and are not easily degradable by conventional aerobic microbial treatment. For the effective degradation of such pollutants advanced oxidation processes are used. . In recent years, two AOPs, viz. photocatalysis (using semiconductor oxides such as TiO2) and sonolysis, which is ultrasound irradiation of aqueous pollutant solution, have been extensively investigated. Simultaneous application of these two techniques, known as Sonophotocatalysis, has been found to give enhanced degradation than any of these techniques applied individually.

Autorentext

Subhabrata Das, a student of 3rd year and am pursuing my degree of Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.), in Biotechnology at National Institute of Technology (NIT), Durgapur, one of the premier institutes for Engineering and Applied Sciences in India. Have taken part in various research projects in this field and still working.

Klappentext

Many of the organic (aromatic) pollutants present in industrial wastewater discharge are recalcitrant. For the effective degradation of such pollutants Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) are required, which are based on production of OH radicals. Simultaneous application of photocatalysis and ultrasound techniques, known as Sonophotocatalysis, has been found to give enhanced degradation than any of these techniques applied individually. The present report attempts to establish the physical mechanism of the sonophotocatalytic process and tries to find the synergy between two techniques that gives enhancement in degradation. For the experiments, 3 textile dyes, viz. Acid Red, Reactive and Direct Blue have been chosen as model pollutants. Experiments have been conducted in 6 categories with addition of 3 solutes, viz. SDS, 2-propanol and 1-butanol, in different concentrations, with no UV source. An assessment of the adsorption behaviour of the dyes in presence of surfactant SDS was done.