Photocatalytic treatment of industrial wastewater

Abstract

A novel Plexiglas double-skin sheet reactor ( DSSR ) able to use diffuse as well as direct sunlight for the detoxification of industrial wastewater was used. The efficiency of the photocatalytic treatment of a highly polluted industrial wastewater was studied. Two different sets of experiments were performed. In the first set of experiments the original wastewater was teated photocatalytically without any pre-treatment. The TOC decrased from 605 mg/L to 373 mg/L within 57.4 hours of illumination. In the second set of experiments the wastewater was pretreated by sedimentation after the addition of a flocculent followed by the photocatalytic oxidation process. The TOC was reduced from 880 ppm before treatment to only 19.7 ppm after treatment in 16.7 hours.