DefinePK

Abstract

Quantity of water use in Indian industries is very high compared to other countries water usage. Inefficient water use by industry in <st1:place w:st=\on\> <st1:country-region w:st=\on\> India</st1:country-region> </st1:place> creates lot of problems. This quantity could be reduced to a minimal by recycling the water after sufficient treatment. The available treatment processes do not aim at sufficient treatment required for recycling of water but it concentrates more on achieving the standards hence complicating the process. Complicated Effluent Treatment process neither helps in recycling of water nor getting standards achieved but results in higher energy consumption for Effluent Treatment Plant. This work aims at sufficient in-situ treatment of wastewater and recycling of water for low-grade applications in the industry. Complete destruction of the contaminant is possible using inexhaustible free source of energy from sunlight thus consuming very less primary energy for its operation. Photocatalytic experiments were carried out using laboratory photo reactor for degradation of phenol wastewater. The experiments were carried out with 0.2 g/L of TiO2 catalyst for different concentration of phenol wastewater ranging from 20 50 100 200 300 400 and 600 ppm. It is found that complete degradation of phenol is possible in a reasonable time (i.e. less than 5 hrs) when concentration of phenol is ≤100 ppm. The paper also reviews the potential opportunities and challenges of solar photocatalytic wastewater treatment for Indian environmental conditions.