Treatment of real industrial wastewaters through nano-TiO2 and nano-Fe2O3 photocatalysis: case study of mining and kraft pulp mill effluents

High quantities of industrial wastewaters containing a wide range of organic and inorganic pollutants are being directly discharged into the environment, sometimes without proper treatment. Nanotechnology has a tremendous potential improving the existing treatments or even develop new treatment solu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEnvironmental technology Vol. 39; no. 12; p. 1586
Main Authors Nogueira, V, Lopes, I, Rocha-Santos, T A P, Gonçalves, F, Pereira, R
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Taylor & Francis Ltd 01.06.2018
Subjects
Aluminum
Aromatic compounds
Bacteria
Cadmium
Case studies
Catalysis
Catalysts
Chemical compounds
Chemical oxygen demand
Effluents
Heavy metals
Hydrogen peroxide
Industrial wastewater
Iron oxides
Kraft pulp
Mining
Nanotechnology
Photocatalysis
Pollutants
Pulp
Pulp & paper mills
Pulp wastes
Reduction
Titanium dioxide
Toxicity
Wastewater treatment
Waterborne diseases
Zinc
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Summary:High quantities of industrial wastewaters containing a wide range of organic and inorganic pollutants are being directly discharged into the environment, sometimes without proper treatment. Nanotechnology has a tremendous potential improving the existing treatments or even develop new treatment solutions. In this study, nano-TiO2 or nano-Fe2O3 was used for the photocatalytic treatment of kraft pulp mill effluent and mining effluent. The experiments with the organic effluent lead to reduction percentages of 93.3%, 68.4% and 89.8%, for colour, aromatic compounds and chemical oxygen demand, respectively, when treated with nano-TiO2/H2O2/UV and nano-Fe2O3/H2O2/UV, at pH 3.0. Significant removal of metals from the mining effluent was recorded but only for Zn, Al and Cd, the highest removal attained with 1.0 g L-1 of nano-TiO2/UV and nano-Fe2O3/UV. Regarding the toxicity of the organic effluent to Vibrio fischeri, it was reduced with the treatments combining the oxidant and the catalyst. However, for the inorganic effluent, the best reduction was achieved using 1.0 g L-1 of catalyst. In fact, the increase in dose of the catalyst, especially for nano-TiO2, enhanced toxicity reduction. Our results have shown that the use of these NMs seemed to be more effective in the organic effluent than in metal-rich effluent.
ISSN:0959-3330
1479-487X
DOI:10.1080/09593330.2017.1334093