Photocatalytic Treatment of Olive Mill Wastewater by N-doped Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles under Visible Light

In this work N-doped TiO2 sol-gel material was successfully synthesized and used for coating on glass spheres of 1 mm in diameter. The composite material was characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The catalytic activity of the obtained photocatalyst was investigated in terms of degradation of organic compounds in diluted and undiluted olive mill wastewater (OMWW) samples. The tests were performed in a batch photoreactor, irradiated by a 150W visible light lamp. The reduction of chemical oxygen demand (COD) was chosen as key parameter of the organic matter degradation. The obtained results showed that the adopted doping and the number of coating layers influences the outcome.