Comparing removal of synthetic anthraquinone dye wastewater in an electrical discharge and UV-LED/WO3 reactors: using statistical Taguchi optimization approach

Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are an available solution for the rapid growth of the water pollution problem. In the present study, the process of UV-LED/WO3 and plasma was comparatively studied to remove reactive blue 19. The photocatalyst process efficiency was analyzed by statistical Taguchi model. The effect of experimental variables of contact time, pH, catalyst dosage, and pollutant dosage was investigated and found that the model is able to explain the process due to the high value of R > 95%, and the optimum condition was at 10 mg/L of dye concentration, 1g/L of catalyst, and 180 min of detention time in which over 75% of degradation was achieved. Based on the model, the more reaction time would increase the reactor performance, while further excessive increase of catalyst dosage over 1 g/L would deteriorate the performance. Obviously, the least amount of pollutant is the most favorable for the treatment reactor. Using plasma process for dye degradation was the next step of the research. Accordingly, the removal rate achieved over 90% of 10 mg/L of initial industrial dye in durational time of 4 min, input voltage 13.5 kV, and pH = 2. The results showed the higher oxidizing capacity of plasma than the conventional photocatalyst process.