High Performance on the Degradation of Cationic Red X-GRL by Wet Electrocatalytic Oxidation Process

Abstract

This paper explored a novel advanced oxidation process for dye wastewater treatment, wet electrocatalytic oxidation (WEO), using electrical current to promote the degradation of organic pollutants in mild wet air oxidation (WAO). At the conditions of T = 120 °C, PN2 = 0.50 MPa, PO2 = 0.28 MPa, and Cdye =1000 mg/L, the introduction of current density = 1.77 mA/cm2 greatly improved the performance of cationic red X-GRL oxidation. The effects of major operational factors including current density, conductivity, initial dye concentration, and oxygen pressure on dye degradation were studied and optimized. The instantaneous current efficiencies under different conditions by WEO were much beyond 100%, which indicated that a small current performed as catalysis more than direct oxidation. Besides, the degradation mechanism by WEO was discussed based on the analysis of hydroxyl radicals formed on both the anode and cathode. A probable degradation pathway was deduced with the help of Gaussian 03W for the purpose of...