Hydrodynamic Cavitation – A Promising Technology for Water Treatment

Abstract

In today's context, water treatment assumes paramount importance due to the scarcity of potable water and the escalating needs of the global population. Hydrodynamic Cavitation (HC) emerges as a promising application in wastewater treatment, particularly when integrated with Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs). The study begins with a critical examination of the literature on combined approaches involving hydrodynamic cavitation, followed by experimental findings. The primary objective was to mitigate the chemical oxygen demand (COD) of the sample through HC in conjunction with hydrogen peroxide and Fenton reagent. Subsequently, each run was executed, and the output value obtained from HC was determined. Throughout the research, samples of river water were procured from the Mula-Mutha River in Pune. HC treatment reduced the COD of river water by approximately 60.83 % at 3 pH. Notably, the highest degradation was observed at 9 pH with the use of Sodium persulphate, with the optimal concentration estimated to be 600 ppm. Moreover, a COD reduction exceeding 89 % with a dosage of 15 mM H2O2. Treatment with Fenton reagent for 60 min demonstrated a remarkable COD decrease of up to 93 %, with an optimal H2O2 to FeSO4 molar ratio of 10:1 and at 3 pH. The Fenton procedure alone or in combination with H2O2 and HC proved to be the most efficient for river water characterized by extremely high COD levels, yielding the greatest reduction during experimental trials. The kinetics of HC degradation conformed to a first-order rate law, with the value of a rate constant (K = 7.21 × 10-4 s−1).