Heterogeneous catalytic oxidation of organic compound for wastewater treatme

Abstract

This research is focused on heterogeneous catalytic oxidation of phenol usually found in wastewater. Active metals of Ruthenium (Ru) and Cobalt (Co) have been impregnated on cheap support materials such as activated carbon (AC), fly ash (FA), red mud (RM), natural zeolite (NZ), ZSM5 and MCM48. Those synthesized catalysts, Ru/AC, Ru/ZSM5, Ru/Al2O3, Ru/TiO2, Ru/MCM48, Co/FA, Co/RM, Co/NZ, Co/MCM48 have been tested in heterogeneous catalytic oxidation of phenol for waste water treatment in the presence of Oxone®. Particularly Ru/Al2O3 and Ru/TiO2 catalysts have been tested in photocatalytic oxidation of phenol under UV-light. This research proves that the active metals impregnated on the support materials have well generated sulfate radicals from peroxymonosulphate (PMS) which serves as an oxidant agent to remove phenol pollutant from aqueous solutions.The catalyst activity in oxidation of phenol follows the order of Co/AC = Ru/AC > Co/MCM48 > Ru/ZSM5 = Co/RM-T > Co/FA-JL. It is found, AC that has large pores and surface area and MCM48 which has a very small particle size exhibit the best results as a support. In the photocatalytic tests, the activation of PMS is generated by the interaction PMS-Catalyst and PMS-UV. The photocatalysts of Ru/TiO2 and Ru/Al2O3 can increase the phenol removal efficiency of 10-15% comparing PMS/UV only. Further, it was observed that catalyst loading, phenol concentration, oxidant concentration and temperature are the major factors influencing oxidation process of phenol. It is also noted, that degradation of phenol in heterogeneous catalytic oxidation is a combination of oxidation and adsorption process. However oxidation is much faster than adsorption.