Organic Wastes Degradation by U.V. Radiation

Abstract

Indian industries use water in a very high quantity as compared to other countries' water usage. Inefficient water use by industries in India creates a lot of problems. This quantity could be reduced to a minimal by recycling the water after sufficient treatment. This work aims at sufficient in-situ treatment of wastewater and recycling of water for low-grade applications in the industry. Complete destruction of the contaminant is possible using inexhaustible, free source of energy from sunlight thus consuming very less primary energy for its operation. Photocatalytic experiments were carried out using laboratory photo reactor for degradation of phenol wastewater. The experiments were carried out with 0.2 g/l of TiO2 catalyst for different concentration of phenol wastewater ranging from 100, 300 and 500 ppm. It is found that complete degradation of phenol is possible in a reasonable time (i.e. less than 5 hrs) when concentration of phenol is ≤100 ppm.