Synergetic effect of gliding arc discharge treatment and biosorption for removal of nitrophene and glycine from aqueous solution

Abstract

The degradation of simulate house effluent containing Nitrophene and Glycine was carried out using gliding arc plasma reactor, one of the upcoming advance oxidation techniques. Aiming to reduce energy cost of treatment, the effect of various parameters such as treatment time, post-discharge phenomenon and addition of Jatropha natural biomass have been discussed. The experiments were conducted at a gas flow rate of 800L/h. The degradation rate depends on the flow of highly oxidizing species formed in the plasma arc and on the sorbent/liquid contact surface time. Furthermore, the kinetic process of the in-situ treatment follows the pseudo-first order model while the post-discharge phenomenon is governed by the general order kinetic model. The initial high polluted solution with 950mg/L TOC is degraded to 658mg/L as final TOC after 1h of in-situ treatment and to 460mg/L TOC after 6h in post-discharges. The use of Jatropha shell as biosorbent in addition of the plasma treatment reduces the TOC from 950 to 530mg/L for in-situ treatment and, to 280mg/L after 6h in post-discharge. These results have showed that it is possible to significantly improve the efficiency of plasma treatment by incorporating modified agricultural residues. The occurrence of CO2 is detected during the plasma treatment by Dräger tube analyser, while NO2− and NO3− are also identified by colorimetric tests.