Central composite design optimization of pilot plant fluidized-bed heterogeneous Fenton process for degradation of an azo dye

Magnetic hierarchical flower-like Fe3O4@ZIF-67/CuNiMn-LDH catalyst with enhanced redox cycle for Fenton-like degradation of Congo red: optimization and mechanism

A novel flower-like CuNiMn-LDH was synthesized and modified, to obtain a promising Fenton-like catalyst, Fe3O4@ZIF-67/CuNiMn-LDH, with a remarkable degradation of Congo red (CR) utilizing H2O2 oxidant. The structural and morphological characteristics of Fe3O4@ZIF-67/CuNiMn-LDH were analyzed via FTIR, XRD, XPS, SEM-EDX, and SEM spectroscopy. In addition, the magnetic property and the surface's charge were defined via VSM and ZP analysis, respectively. Fenton-like experiments were implemented to investigate the aptness conditions for the Fenton-like degradation of CR; pH medium, catalyst dosage, H2O2 concentration, temperature, and the initial concentration of CR. The catalyst exhibited supreme degradation performance for CR to reach 90.9% within 30 min at pH 5 and 25 °C. Moreover, the Fe3O4@ZIF-67/CuNiMn-LDH/H2O2 system revealed considerable activity when tested for different dyes since the degradation efficiencies of CV, MG, MB, MR, MO, and CR were 65.86, 70.76, 72.56, 75.54, 85.99, and 90.9%, respectively. Furthermore, the kinetic study elucidated that the CR degradation by the Fe3O4@ZIF-67/CuNiMn-LDH/H2O2 system obeyed pseudo-first-order kinetic model. More importantly, the concrete results deduced the synergistic effect between the catalyst components, producing a continuous redox cycle consisting of five active metal species. Eventually, the quenching test and the mechanism study proposed the predominance of the radical mechanism pathway on the Fenton-like degradation of CR by the Fe3O4@ZIF-67/CuNiMn-LDH/H2O2 system.

Photocatalytic Treatment of Wastewater Containing Simultaneous Organic and Inorganic Pollution: Competition and Operating Parameters Effects

In the present study, methylene blue (MB) removal from aqueous solutions via the photocatalytic process using TiO2 as a catalyst in the presence of external ultra-violet light (UV) was investigated. The results of adsorption in the absence of UV radiation showed that adsorption reached an equilibrium state at 60 min. The experimental kinetic data were found to be well fitted by the pseudo-second-order model. Furthermore, the isotherm study suggested that dye uptake by TiO2 is a chemisorption process with a maximum retention capacity of 34.0 mg/g. The photodegradation of MB was then assessed under various experimental conditions. The related data showed that dye mineralization decreased when dye concentrations were increased and was favored at high pH values and low salt concentrations. The simultaneous presence of organic and inorganic pollution (Zinc) was also evaluated. The effect of the molar ratio Zn2+/MB+ in the solution at different pH values and NaCl concentrations was also monitored. The corresponding experimental results showed that at low values of Zn2+ in the solution (30 mg/L), the kinetic of the MB removal became faster until reaching an optimum at Zn2+/MB+ concentrations of 60/60 mg/L; it then slowed down for higher concentrations. The solutions’ carbon contents were measured during the degradation process and showed total mineralization after about 5 h for the optimal Zn2+/MB+ condition.

Fluidized-bed Fenton technologies for recalcitrant industrial wastewater treatment-Recent advances, challenges and perspective

In recent years, fluidized-bed Fenton (FBR-Fenton) process has gained more attention in treating recalcitrant industrial wastewater. FBR-Fenton combines the effectiveness of homogeneous Fenton and sludge reduction of heterogeneous Fenton. Comparing to other modified Fenton processes, FBR-Fenton has greater economical and scaling up potential. However, large consumption of Fenton reagents and strict pH control are still the bottlenecks hampering the full-scale application of FBR-Fenton. While prior reviews mainly focused on the operation and performance of FBR-Fenton process, the present study critically discussed the challenges and bottlenecks for its full-scale industrial application. This study also comprehensively reviewed the development strategies for tackling these drawbacks, mainly over the recent five years. Homogeneous FBR-Fenton, heterogeneous FBR-Fenton and heterogeneous FBR-photo-Fenton processes were classified for the first time according to their reaction mechanisms and system designs. Important operational and design parameters affecting the cost-effectiveness of all FBR-Fenton technologies were reviewed, including the fundamentals, common practices and even innovative steps for enhancing the process performance. Up-to-date applications of FBR-Fenton technologies in recalcitrant wastewater/compounds treatment were also summarized, and it was found that upscaling of heterogeneous FBR-Fenton and heterogeneous FBR-photo-Fenton processes was still very challenging. Strategies to overcome the key technical limitations and enhance process cost-effectiveness were discussed in the future perspective part. Furthermore, modelling techniques such as computational fluid dynamics model and artificial neural network were suggested to be promising modelling techniques for speeding up the full-scale applications of FBR-Fenton technologies.

Al-Doped magnetite encapsulated in mesoporous carbon: a long-lasting Fenton catalyst for CWPO of phenol in a fixed-bed reactor under mild conditions

Al substituted magnetite was identified as a promising heterogeneous Fenton catalyst for CWPO of 200 ppm phenol in a continuous system under mild conditions (pH 5, 40 °C, 0.1 ml min−1, 1.2S H2O2) for 500 h with 80% TOC conversion, 1 ppm Fe leaching.

Heterogeneous Fenton reaction for elimination of Acid Yellow 36 in both fluidized-bed and stirred-tank reactors: Computational fluid dynamics versus experiments

Heterogeneous Fenton process is a kind of advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) that is significant for wastewater treatment. In the first part of this study, acid yellow 36 (AY36) degradation process has occurred in two kinds of reactors: fluidized-bed and stirred-tank reactors. Performances of these two semi-pilot reactors are compared by evaluating the removal ratio of the dye and pH changes during the process. Pyrite has been used as a heterogeneous catalyst. For obtaining the characteristics of pyrite, XRD, SEM, and FT-IR analysis have been carried out. In the second part of this study, a modified computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method has been utilized to solve the momentum and mass balances for heterogeneous Fenton process in both reactors. In AOPs, free radicals are reactive and have a short lifetime, so that turbulence mixing would be a limiting factor for the reactions that radicals are involved. By introducing a new parameter, named turbulence mixing rate, as a reaction rate for reactive species like hydroxyl radicals, the results of removal ratio and pH changes during the process showed a good agreement between the experiments and the CFD simulations, compared with not including the mixing rate in the CFD simulations (conventional kinetic modeling). In addition, the results revealed the high performance of the fluidized-bed reactor for this process in both experiments and CFD simulation.