Nanophotocatalytic Ozonation of Textile Dyeing Wastewater using Cu-ZnO Nanocatalyst and Study of Reactor Influencing Parameters

Nanophotocatalytic ozonation (PCO) of textile dyeing wastewater with Cu-ZnO nanocatalyst was studied in a laboratory scale recirculating photocatalytic ozonation batch reactor. A bench scale reactor was fabricated to suit the integration of ozonation and nano photocatalytic treatment. After optimizing the reaction parameters such as Ozone dosage, Catalyst dosage, pH for nano PCO with Copper doped zinc oxide (Cu-ZnO) nanocatalyst and Amaranth dye as a model pollutant, the efficiency of the PCO reactor was investigated with respect to ozone dosage (0.24g/h-0.57g/h), liquid volume (1000 mL-5000 mL), recycle rate (6 L/h- 39L/h). Based on the optimized parameters, the mineralization of the Amaranth dye resulted in 85.6% removal. Ozone dose was found to have a significant impact on the process efficiency. Wastewater from textile dyeing industry showed 95% degradation measured by Chemical Oxygen Demand removal and 80% mineralization by reduction of Total Organic Carbon. Biodegradability of the treated wastewater increased to 0.42 implying that the further treatment could be progressed by biological method. This study on recirculating batch reactor shows that this treatment could be scaled up for industrial sector.