Response Surface Methodology Used for Characterization and Optimization of Photocatalytic and Oxidant for the Treatment of Municipal Wastewater

摘要

In this study, municipal wastewater was treated by two types of advanced oxidation processes-photocatalytic (solar radiation/TiO_2 and photocatalytic with oxidation (solar radiation/TiO_2/H_2O_2). Response Surface Method (RSM) was used for characterization and optimization of both the processes in which a response of interest is influenced by several variables. The factors study includes pH, catalyst dose, and amount of oxidant. The performance of photocatalytic and oxidant process was investigated in terms of percentage degradation of wastewater. The result shows that catalyst dose and amount of oxidant have significant effect on the degradation process of municipal wastewater. Photocatalytic degradation efficiency was found to be dependent on optimized catalyst dose (1 g/L) and amount of oxidant (30 mL/L). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) exhibited a high coefficient (r~2 = 0.912-0.996), thereby indicating a satisfactory fit between the experimental results. The statistical model of solar radiation/TiO_2H_2O_2 has shown excellent performance.