Dielectric barrier discharge-coupled Fe-based zeolite to remove ammonia nitrogen and phenol pollutants from water

Abstract

In this work, dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) coupled with Fe-based zeolite catalyst was used to treat ammonia nitrogen and phenol wastewater. This experiment mainly investigated the effects of discharge voltage, discharge frequency, zeolite dosage, initial solution concentration and pH on ammonia nitrogen or phenol removal. Results showed that the removal rate of ammonia nitrogen increased with increased discharge voltage, discharge frequency, zeolite dosage, and initial pH and decreased with increased initial ammonia nitrogen concentration. The best removal rate of ammonia nitrogen reached 75.11%, which was higher than removal rates of the solutions treated with zeolite adsorption alone (10.93%) and DBD discharge alone (9.67%). However, the removal rate of phenol increased with discharge voltage, discharge frequency, and zeolite dosage and decreased with increased initial phenol concentration and initial solution pH. After 20 min of reaction, the removal rate of phenol reached 56.67%, which was higher than the removal rates of the solutions treated with zeolite adsorption alone (20.61%) and DBD discharge alone (3.54%).Therefore, a DBD-coupled metal zeolite catalyst system has a good treatment effect on inorganic and organic wastewater. In addition, DBD-coupled Fe-based zeolite catalyst was used to simultaneously treat mixed ammonia nitrogen and phenol wastewater. The degradation process and mechanism of mixed ammonia nitrogen and phenol wastewater in the system were studied to reflect the synergistic effect of the system.