Photocatalytic and electrochemical combined treatment of textile wash water.

Various chemical and physical processes for treatment of textile effluent are not destructive but they only transfer the contaminants from one form to another. The presence of high concentration of organic dye and total dissolved solids (TDS) in the effluent that are not removed by biological treatment must be eliminated by an alternative method to the conventional ones is the advanced oxidation process (AOP). A procion blue dye effluent was treated by photo and electrochemical oxidation process as well as by combining photocatalytic degradation using TiO2 suspensions. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) and colour removal can be used to follow the degradation of the organic pollutant. The effects of pH, current density, flow rate of effluent that passes into the reactor and supporting electrolyte were studied. Comparative studies were carried out on photocatalytic and electrochemical process to degrade the procion blue. The maximum COD reduction and colour removal were 96 and 100%, respectively. Photodegradation efficiency of dye was high when photolysis was carried out in the presence of 40 mg/l of TiO2.