THE DEVELOPMENT AND STUDY OF AN INTEGRATED PROCESS OF ENHANCED PHOTOCATALYSIS AND BIOLOGICAL DEGRADATION FOR EFFECTIVE TREATMENT OF METHYL ORANGE DYE IN AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS

Abstract

Dye wastewater has become one of the most concerned global environmental issues. In this study, TiO2-Graphene Oxide (GO) composite photocatalyst was immobilized onto buoyant substrate to obtain a buoyant TiO2-GO composite photocatalyst. The photocatalyst was found to show enhanced UV-Vis photocatalytic activity and achieve higher methyl orange (MO) dye degradation efficiency than the buoyant TiO2 photocatalyst without GO modification. The prepared TiO2-GO composite photocatalyst was further applied in the degradation of MO dye in solutions of different concentrations with the aid adding a small molecule?formic acid (FA), which was used as a source to produce more amount of H2O2 under the UV-Vis light radiation. Finally, the biodegradability of the MO dye wastewater pre-treated through enhanced photocatalysis using TiO2-GO+FA was examined, and an integration system of photocatalysis and aerobic biological degradation process in a lab-scale set-up was developed for MO wastewater treatment with impressive color & TOC removal performance.