Abstract
Molasses wastewater (MWW) is characterised by a biorecalcitrant dark brown colour caused by melanoidin pigments and a high organic load. Anaerobic digestion (AD), mostly applied as a first step treatment method for MWW, can effectively remove the high organic load, but with minimal colour mitigation. Photodegradation is among the preferred advanced treatment methods to complement AD for the colour abatement. This study looked into the effect of employing zeolite as a biomass and catalyst support in AD and photodegradation, respectively. Zeolite was applied in a fixed bed bioreactor for biodegradation, while a composite of TiO2/zeolite catalyst was prepared and used in a fluidised bed photoreactor. The zeolite and TiO2 were characterised using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) where it was found that the zeolite surface area and pore volume were almost twice that of TiO2. Introduction of zeolite improved chemical oxygen demand (COD) reduction by 20% during AD with a fivefold increase in biogas production. However, a 40% increase in colour was recorded during AD due to a possible re-polymerisation of the recalcitrant colour-causing melanoidins. The photodegradation process was effective in colour remediation with 99% colour removed on employing the TiO2/zeolite composite catalyst, as compared to 44% removed when TiO2 was solely used. Degradation of melanoidins into simpler products was responsible for the colour disappearance. Zeolite due to its large specific surface area and good adsorption properties was found suitable for application as a biomass and catalyst support in AD and photodegradation, respectively.
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Water Research Commission (WRC, Project No. K5/2773/3), Sasol and NRF, all from South Africa, are acknowledged for financial support.
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Apollo, S., Otieno, B., Onyango, M., Ochieng, A. (2019). Influence of Zeolite Support on Integrated Biodegradation and Photodegradation of Molasses Wastewater for Organic Load Reduction and Colour Removal. In: Arora, N., Kumar, N. (eds) Phyto and Rhizo Remediation. Microorganisms for Sustainability, vol 9. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9664-0_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9664-0_12
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