Use of Titanium Dioxide Reaction for Degradation of Chlorophenol

The use of Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) reaction for degradation of Chlorophenol (CP) has been investigated. Initial TiO2 concentration of 10 mg.L-1 and 40 minutes of reaction time was enough to eliminate 100 mg.L^-1 of CP from the wastewater. The bio-treatability of the solution (BOD5/COD ratio) was improved from 0, for the untreated CP solution, to 0.18 (corresponding BOD21/COD was 0.24). The pre-treated solution biodegradability enhancement was verified by performing biological oxidation for the pre-treated solutions. The biomass used in aerobic digestion is fresh activated sludge from municipal wastewater treatment plant. More than 80% of the Total Organic Carbon (%TOC) elimination was obtained by co-digestion of the pre-treated solution with wastewater. The hydraulic retention times used in the bioreactors were of the same order of magnitude of those used at domestic wastewater treatment plants; i.e., between 12 and 24 hours. Kinetic studies based on pseudo-first order kinetics have also been carried out with the demonstration of constants to be ranged between 0.67 and 1.7 L.g TVSS^-1.h^-1.