Comparison of porous support media for photocatalytic oxidation of wastewater using titanium dioxide

摘要

This paper documents testing of a practical reactor system for photocatalytic oxidation of wastewater using titanium dioxide (TiO2) applied to a porous media. Three different support media supported the TiO2 used in this experiment: glass beads, zeolites, and granular activated carbon. An isopropanol mixture was used to simulate organic destruction in wastewater through the reactor system. The effectiveness of each support medium was determined by measuring the time-dependent concentrations of chemical oxygen demand (COD) of the solution as it was processed in the reactor. First the percent reduction for each medium was determined. Next the data were fit to zero, first and second order reaction models. Overall, the wastewater showed reductions from 27 to 35 over 24 hour reaction intervals. It was determined that the data from the glass beads and zeolite matrix more closely followed a zero-order model. The activated carbon appeared to better follow the expected second-order model. In the future, this type of treatment may be useful for the remediation of high levels of COD in wastewater under one-sun conditions. References: 20