Title: Solar photo-catalytic treatment of textile wastewater for biodegradability enhancement

Authors: Shashi Kant Dubey, Paritosh Srivastava, Anoop Verma, Anita Rajor

Addresses: Department of Biotechnology and Environmental Engineering, Hindustan College of Science and Technology, Farah, Mathura, India. ' Department of Biotechnology and Environmental Engineering, Hindustan College of Science and Technology, Farah, Mathura, India. ' Department of Biotechnology and Environmental Sciences, Thapar University, Patiala, India. ' Department of Biotechnology and Environmental Sciences, Thapar University, Patiala, India

Abstract: The objective of our study was to increase the biodegradability of actual industrial (textile) wastewater using solar photo catalysis. Live industry effluent was taken and characterised. The results showed that wastewater is non-biodegradable in nature besides having an intense colour. The effluent was treated using titanium dioxide as a photo catalyst in a shallow pond slurry type reactor. The results showed 96% colour removal and 92% COD reduction, along with enhancement in the biodegradability of the effluent from 0.3 to 0.6 at optimised reaction conditions (i.e., 0.1% catalyst loading, pH of 5.5 and an oxidant conc. of 1 ml/200 ml) and a solar UV intensity of 26 W/m².

Keywords: AOP; advanced oxidation process; textile wastewater; solar energy; solar power; solar photocatalysis; wastewater treatment; biodegradability.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEE.2009.027312

International Journal of Environmental Engineering, 2009 Vol.1 No.2, pp.152 - 164

Published online: 19 Jul 2009 *

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