Intensified degradation of tartrazine dye present in effluent using ultrasound combined with ultraviolet irradiation and oxidants

Effluent containing tartrazine can affect the environment and human health significantly prompting the current study into degradation using a sonochemical reactor operated individually and combined with advanced oxidation processes. The optimum conditions for ultrasound treatment were established as dye concentration of 10 ppm, pH of 3, temperature as 35 °C, and power as 90 W. The combination approach of H2O2/UV, H2O2/US, and H2O2/UV/US resulted in higher degradation of 25.44%, 57.4%, and 74.36% respectively. Use of ZnO/UV/US approach increased the degradation significantly to 85.31% whereas maximum degradation as 93.11% was obtained for the US/UV/Fenton combination. COD reduction was found maximum as 83.78% for the US/UV/Fenton combination. The kinetic analysis showed that tartrazine dye degradation follows pseudo first-order kinetics for all the studied processes. Combination of Fenton with UV and US was elucidated as the best approach for degradation of tartrazine.

Degradation of tartrazine by Oxone® in the presence of cobalt based catalyst supported on pillared montmorillonite - Efficient technology even in extreme conditions

The catalytic degradation of hazardous organic contaminants in industrial wastewater is a promising technology. Reactions of tartrazine, the synthetic yellow azo dye, with Oxone® in the presence of catalyst in strong acidic condition (pH 2), were detected by using UV-Vis spectroscopy. In order to extend the applicability profile of Co-supported Al-pillared montmorillonite catalyst an investigation of Oxone® induced reactions were performed in extreme acidic environment. The products of the reactions were identified by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Along with the catalytic decomposition of tartrazine induced by radical attack (confirmed as unique reaction path under neutral and alkaline conditions), the formation of tartrazine derivatives by reaction of nucleophilic addition was also detected. The presence of derivatives under acidic conditions slowed down the hydrolysis of tartrazine diazo bond in comparison to the reactions in neutral environment. Nevertheless, the reaction in acidic conditions (pH 2) is faster than the one conducted in alkaline conditions (pH 11). Theoretical calculations were used to complete and clarify the mechanisms of tartrazine derivatization and degradation, as well as to predict the UV-Vis spectra of compounds which could serve as predictors of certain reaction phases. ECOSAR program, used to estimate toxicological profile of compounds to aquatic animals, indicated an increase in the harmfulness of the compounds identified by LC-MS as degradation products from the reaction conducted for 240min. It could be concluded that an intensification of the process parameters (higher concentration of Oxone®, higher catalyst loading, increased reaction time, etc.) is needed in order to obtain only biodegradable products.

Development of a Hg-free UV light source incorporating a Kr/Br2 gas, and its application for wastewater treatments

Mercury lamps are typically the major light sources in water treatments. However, the use of mercury has raised some concerns with regard to the Minamata Convention on Mercury. As such, Hg-free microwave discharged electrodeless lamps (MDELs) that incorporate a rare gas and a halogen gas (R/H-MDEL) have been investigated with such Hg-free mixture filler gases as Kr/Cl₂, Xe/Cl₂, and Kr/Br₂ (R/H). Of these, only the Kr/Br₂-MDEL lamp is self-ignited at an inner pressure of 15 Torr when irradiated with microwave radiation. Accordingly, a novel Kr/Br₂ three-layer MDEL (Kr/Br₂-MDEL) photoreactor was fabricated to assess the optimal gas composition and gas pressure toward its performance vis-à-vis the treatment of model wastewaters contaminated with the tartrazine dye in aqueous media and with Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria. The extent of degradation of the tartrazine dye and sterilization of E. coli increased with irradiation time, with microwave radiation power (100, 200, and 300 W), and with increased sample flow rate 0.4 L min^‒1 to 0.8 L min^‒1. The tartrazine-contaminated wastewater was treated at a flow rate of 0.4 L min^‒1 for 60 min of microwave irradiation by three different protocols that resulted in UV (62%) >> UV/ROS (24%) > ROS (0%); ROS denotes reactive oxygen species. After 5 min irradiation of the E.coli wastewater, also at 0.4 L min^‒1, the order was UV (99.5%) ≈ UV/ROS (99.3%) >> ROS (14.5%). For comparison, the photosterilization of E. coli with an equivalent Hg/Ar-MDEL light source was also nearly complete (99.7%). Thus, the suitability of the environmentally friendlier Kr/Br₂ gas fill to replace Hg/Ar filler gas in MDELs for the photoelimination of organic pollutants and microbial disinfection in aqueous media has been demonstrated.