Degradation of Terphetalic Acid from Petrochemical Wastewater by Ozonation and O3/ZnO Processes in Semi Batch Reactor

Background & Aims of the Study: One of the toxic pollutants in the wastewater of petrochemical industries is Terphetalic acid. In this study, the degradation and mineralization of Terphetalic acid in aqueous environment were studied by Ozonation and O3/ZnO processes in a semi batch reactor. Materials & Methods: This study is an experimental research on a laboratory scale. The study executed on synthetic wastewater having Terphetalic acid. The impact of operational factors such as pH, initial concentration of ZnO and Terphetalic acid was also studied. Results: Different amounts of variables were optimized for the removal of Terphetalic acid in O3/ZnO process. The optimum conditions were achieved as follows: the [ZnO]=1.20 g/l, pH at 9, and [TPA]=70 mg/l. Conclusions: The results exhibited that at the predicted optimum conditions and after 30 min of reaction, the removal of Terphetalic acid and Total Organic Carbon (TOC) was 96.9 and 44.3%, respectively. The O3/ZnO process was powerful in the removal of TPA, but it can remove the TOC to some extent.