Enhanced Removal of COD and Color in Paper-making Wastewater by Ozonation Catalyzed by Fe Supported on Activated Carbon

Abstract

After biological treatment, pulp and paper mill effluent still may contain large amounts of recalcitrant organic pollutants that need to be further treated. In this study, Fe supported on activated carbon (Fe@AC) was prepared and used as a catalyst in the catalytic ozonation of pulp and paper mill effluent. The activity of this catalyst was studied in terms of color and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiencies. Results showed that the COD removal rate was increased by 21% in the presence of the Fe@AC catalyst. After 60 min of ozonation (3g/h ozone flow rate) of the pulp and paper mill effluent (initial COD 360 mg/L), COD removal rates reached 56% in the presence of Fe@AC, 43% using AC as catalyst, and only 35% with ozonation alone. Ozone alone can achieve satisfactory color removal results. Owing to the scavenging effect of carbonate and bicarbonate ions towards hydroxyl radicals, the COD removal rate in Fe/AC catalytic ozonation of the effluent was strongly inhibited in the presence of these two ions. The COD removal rate followed the pseudo-second-order kinetics model well. The COD removal rate constant in the Fe@AC/O3 process was about 1.6 times higher than that of the AC/O3 process, and approximately 2.1 times higher than that of ozone alone.

Keywords

• Activated carbon
• Catalytic ozonation
• COD
• Ferrihydrite
• Paper-making wastewater