Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety (Mar 2024)

Synergistic degradation of Congo Red by hybrid advanced oxidation via ultraviolet light, persulfate, and hydrodynamic cavitation

  • Abolfazl Dehghani,
  • Soroush Baradaran,
  • Salman Movahedirad

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 272
p. 116042

Abstract

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In the present study, hybrid activation of sodium peroxydisulfate (PS) by hydrodynamic cavitation and ultraviolet radiation was investigated for Congo Red (CR) degradation. Experiments were conducted using the Box-Benken design on inlet pressure (2–6 bar), PS concentration (0–50 mg. L−1) and UV radiation power (0–32 W). According to the results, at the optimum point where the pressure, PS concentration and UV radiation power were equal to 4.5 bar, 30 mg. L−1 and 16 W respectively, 92.01% of decolorization was achieved. Among the investigated processes, HC/UV/PS was the best process with the rate constant and synergetic coefficient of 38.6 × 10−3 min−1 and 2.76, respectively. At the optimum conditions, increasing the pollutant concentration from 20 mg. L−1 to 80 mg. L−1 decrease degradation rate from 92.01 to 45.21. Presence of natural organic mater (NOM) in all concentrations inhibited the CR degradation. Quenching experiments revealed that in the HC/UV/PS hybrid AOP free radicals accounted for 63.4% of the CR degradation, while the contribution of sulfate (SRs) and hydroxyl radicals (HRs) was 53.1% and 46.9%, respectively.

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