Use of Titanium Dioxide Reaction for Degradation of Chlorophenol

Abstract

The use of Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) reaction for degradation of Chlorophenol (CP) has been investigated. Initial TiO2 concentration of 10 mg.L-1 and 40 minutes of reaction time was enough to eliminate 100 mg.L-1 of CP from the wastewater. The bio-treatability of the solution (BOD5/COD ratio) was improved from 0, for the untreated CP solution, to 0.18 (corresponding BOD21/COD was 0.24). The pre-treated solution biodegradability enhancement was verified by performing biological oxidation for the pre-treated solutions. The biomass used in aerobic digestion is fresh activated sludge from municipal wastewater treatment plant. More than 80% of the Total Organic Carbon (%TOC) elimination was obtained by co-digestion of the pre-treated solution with wastewater. The hydraulic retention times used in the bioreactors were of the same order of magnitude of those used at domestic wastewater treatment plants; i.e., between 12 and 24 hours. Kinetic studies based on pseudo-first order kinetics have also been carried out with the demonstration of constants to be ranged between 0.67 and 1.7 L.g TVSS-1.h-1.