Advanced oxidation-based treatment of furniture industry wastewater

ABSTRACT

The paper presents a study on the treatment of the furniture industry wastewater in a bench scale advanced oxidation reactor. The researched technology utilized a simultaneous application of ozone, ultraviolet radiation and surface-immobilized TiO₂ nanoparticle catalyst. Various combinations of processes were tested, including photolysis, photocatalysis, ozonation, catalytic ozonation, photolytic ozonation and photocatalytic ozonation were tested against the efficiency of degradation. The efficiency of the processes was primarily characterized by the total organic carbon (TOC) analysis, indicating the remaining organic material in the wastewater after the treatment, while the toxicity changes in wastewater were researched by Daphnia magna toxicity tests. Photocatalytic ozonation was confirmed as the most effective combination of processes (99.3% of TOC reduction during 180 min of treatment), also being the most energy efficient (4.49–7.83 MJ/g). Photocatalytic ozonation and photolytic ozonation remained efficient across a wide range of pH (3–9), but the pH was an important factor in photocatalysis. The toxicity of wastewater depended on the duration of the treatment: half treated water was highly toxic, while fully treated water did not possess any toxicity. Our results indicate that photocatalytic ozonation has a high potential for the upscaling and application in industrial settings.

KEYWORDS:

• Wastewater treatment
• advanced oxidation
• photocatalytic ozonation
• photocatalysis
• toxicity

Acknowledgements

Authors are grateful to Mrs Ekin Eke, a visiting student from Süleyman Demirel University, for assistance in laboratory analyses.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Research Council of Lithuania under grant ‘Synergetic effects in DBD plasma technology for removal of organic compounds from wastewater’ (Sinergoplas), project No. MIP-024/2014 (Lietuvos Mokslo Taryba)