Photocatalytic Oxidation of A Reactive Azo Dye and Evaluation of The Biodegradability of Photocatalytically Treated and Untreated Dye
Photocatalytic Oxidation of A Reactive Azo Dye and Evaluation of The Biodegradability of Photocatalytically Treated and Untreated Dye
Photocatalytic Oxidation of A Reactive Azo Dye and Evaluation of The Biodegradability of Photocatalytically Treated and Untreated Dye
Nevim Gen
University of Kocaeli, Dept. of Environmental Engineering, 41001 0zmit, Turkey
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the photocatalytic oxidation of a reactive azo dye and determine the improvement in the biodegradability when photocatalytic oxidation was used as a pretreatment step prior to biological treatment. The results obtained from the experiments adding H2O2/TiO2 show that the highest decolorisation rate is provided by the combination of (UV+TiO2+H2O2). The decolorisation efficiencies were 18%, 22%, 34% and 52% in the runs UV, UV+H2O2, UV+TiO2 and (UV+TiO2+H2O2) after approximately 100 min illumination periods, respectively. The decolorisation rate was increased significantly by initially increasing the concentration of TiO2 in the dye solution; however, it was decreased due to the reduced light transmission when the concentration of TiO2 was in excess. The decolorisation rate constant was 0.018 0.002min-1 in the presence of 1 gl-1 TiO2 while it was 0.004 0.001min-1 in the presence of 0.125 gl-1 TiO2. The results of the obtained oxygen uptake rate measurements in biological activated sludge have shown that the photocatalytically treated dye was easier to degrade than untreated dye. The ability of the activated sludge to degrade glucose was not inhibited in the presence of photocatalytically treated and untreated dye. Also, the biodegradability of photocatalytically treated and untreated dye was investigated via the biological oxygen demand (BOD) test. The results indicated that further degradation of the treated dye may take place by activated sludge in aerobic conditions.
Introduction
Photocatalytic oxidation using a semiconductor such as TiO2 as photocatalyst is one of the various advanced oxidation processes used nowadays. As TiO2 is illuminated by light with a wavelength below 380 nm, the photons excite valence band electrons across the band gap into the conduction band, leaving holes behind in the valence band. The hydrogen peroxide absorbs only UV light with a wavelength < 300 nm (Parra et al., 2000). The holes in TiO2 react with water molecules or hydroxide ions (OH-) producing hydroxyl radicals (.OH).The generation of .OH depends on the solution pH. In alkaline solutions, the generation of the radical .OH mainly involves a charge transfer between OH- ions and valence band holes at the photocatalyst surface, whereas at neutral and acidic pH, direct hole oxidation is also possible. Organic pollutants which are adsorbed on the surface of the catalyst will then be oxidised by .OH (Gonalves et al., 1999). Photocatalytic oxidation of dyes has been investigated by a number of researchers. Photocatalytic oxidation processes can oxidise a wide variety of toxic and persistent organic compounds to harmless inorganics such as mineral acids, carbon dioxide and water (Dominguez et al., 1998). Also, this process forms some byproducts such as halides, metals, inorganic acids and organic aldehydes depending on the initial materials and the extent of decolorisation (Robinson et al., 2001). The colour of dyes results from conjugated chains or rings which absorb light at visible wavelengths. The UV-degradation can be achieved by the cleavage of conjugated chains (Ma and Chu, 2001).