Constructive waste as a promising catalyst for wastewater treatment in advanced oxidation process to approach sustainability

Project Members
  • Principal Investigator
      Prof. Chen,Wei-Hsin (NCKU)
  • Co-investigator
    1. Prof. Guo, Wenshan(University of Technology Sydney)
    2. Prof. Aristotle T. Ubando(De La Salle University)

The Fenton-like reaction is a promising organic wastewater treatment reaction among advanced oxidation processes (AOP), which is in line with energy-saving and zero-waste strategies and has emerged as a potential candidate to replace the traditional Fenton reaction. Recycled construction and demolition waste (CDW), which is porous and rich in iron, manganese, and magnesium, can be reused as a catalyst for Fenton-like reactions, thereby reducing the amount of CDW in industrial waste. This study proposes a circular economic AOP wastewater treatment strategy using four kinds of recycled porous CDW with different specific surface areas mixed with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) at different proportions to decompose methylene blue (MB) wastewater with different concentrations. The specific surface areas of the four porous CDW are 0.49, 0.67, 2.06, and 8.45 m2g-1, respectively. According to the apparent first-order rate (Kapp) of MB adsorption, its Kapp increases with the increase of specific surface area, and the Kapp of the MB adsorption for CDW-3, which has the highest specific surface area, is about 0.23 min-1g-1 at the MB concentration of 10 ppm. Meanwhile, the Taguchi method is used to find the optimization of Fenton-like reaction formulations. 0.3 g∙mL-1 CDW-3, 0.254 g∙mL-1 H2O2, and 10 ppm MB are the optimal conditions obtained by the Taguchi method under the given level ranges, and the Kapp of MB decomposition is about 2.01 min‑1. In addition, MB concentration is observed as the most influential factor for the Kapp of MB decomposition. Kapp decreases with increasing MB concentration, and Kapp is about 0.62 min‑1 at an MB concentration of 1000 ppm. At the MB concentration of 100 ppm, after repeating the Fenton-like reaction for five times using the same CDW-3, the Kapp of MB degradation still has about 0.64 min-1 which accounted for 86% of the initial run of testing. To further discuss the synergistic effect of using CDW-3 on MB adsorption and decomposition behavior, the combination of MB+H2O2, MB+CDW-3, and MB+CDW-3+H2O2 are used to observe its ability to remove MB at the concentration of 100 ppm. Their Kapp is 0.015, 0.08, and 0.74 min-1, respectively. The synergistic effect index (ξ) is defined to quantify the level of interaction between CDW and H2O2. Free radicals with the ability to decompose organic molecules are the products of such an interaction. Porosity and catalyst element content are the influencing factors that affect the level of ξ. A higher ξ means that more MB is removed, which is a result of the increased amount of free radicals produced during the Fenton-like process. The ξ of CDW-3 with a specific surface area of 8.45 m2g-1 is about 2.16 in the Fenton-like process. Overall, it is demonstrated that CDW is a circular economic and promising catalyst for Fenton-like reactions, and the synergistic effect index (ξ) can be used as a reference index to evaluate the catalytic generation of free radicals between the catalyst and H2O2.