Treatment of Industrial Wastewater by Solar Nano Photocatalysis

Abstract

Experimental investigations were carried out to find environmental friendly and effective solution by harnessing of solar energy through photocatalysis to degrade the contaminants present in wastewater using ZnO nano particles as photocatalyst . Multilayer thin film of photocatalyst (ZnO) was developed inside the glass tube reactor by layer-by-layer (L-b-L) method. Effluent samples were collected from four industries in the sultanate of Oman and a series of experiments were carried out in a ZnO thin film coated reactor under solar radiation exposure for 4 hours. pH, COD, TOC , TDS and Turbidity was analyzed for the samples collected on hourly basis and a comparison of treatment showed substantial degradation of pollutants in all the wastewater samples and also complete de-colorization of sewage wastewater.