Congo Red Dye Removal from Aqueous Solutions by Photocatalytic Redox Reactions Using Anatase Nano-TiO2 as a Heterogeneous Catalyst: Degradation Kinetics and Simulation Using Dispersion Model

Abstract

Water pollution caused by Congo red as a textile dye is a significant concern for the aquatic environment. The photocatalytic redox reactions were carried out in a closed batch photoreactor using 0.2 g/L Anatase nano-TiO2 as a catalyst to remove different initial concentrations (32, 71, and 178 ppm COD) of the dye from its neutral aqueous solutions at 40℃. The air was supplied to the reactor as an oxygen source at a rate of 0.2 L/min. The COD removal values decreased with the increasing initial dye concentration, and the best removal value was recorded (89.47 %) for the lowest initial COD (32 ppm) after 255 minutes of radiation. The kinetics study showed that the Congo red dye removal followed a first-order reaction model. A mathematical model was developed based on the axial dispersion phenomenon to simulate the product distribution of the dye through several types of reactors (ideal and nonideal plug flow and mixed flow reactors). Effects of initial concentration, dispersion number, and space-time on the organic distribution through the reactors were studied and discussed. The simulated results show that the ideal plug flow reactor (zero dispersion) performance was better than that of the nonideal plug flow reactor, and the performance decreased with the increasing dispersion number and gave the worst performance in the mixed flow reactor (infinity dispersion).