Abstract
Methyl tertiary-butyl ether is a synthetic compound that was developed as a technological solution to a technology-derived problem created by air pollution from vehicle emissions. Methyl tertiary-butyl ether was added to gasoline with the intent to reduce air emissions, making the fuel burn cleaner. Unfortunately, use of this air-saving gasoline additive has created one of the most threatening and widespread environmental problems for the nation's drinking water supply. In this work, degradation of methyl tertiary-butyl ether in aqueous solution using the solar ultraviolet and TiO2 nano particles was investigated. Factors that affect photocatalytic removal of methyl tertiary-butyl ether, such as pH, TiO2, and methyl tertiary-butyl ether concentrations, were studied and optimum conditions were determined using the Taguchi method for designing the experiments. Results showed that the best conditions for the removing of methyl tertiary-butyl ether in the ultraviolet/TiO2 process are 2 g/l nano TiO2 and 50 ppm methyl tertiary-butyl ether, which leads to more than 88% removal of methyl tertiary-butyl ether in 120 min.