Degradation of hazardous organic compounds by using electro-fenton technology

• Main Author: Özcan, Ali
• Language: English
• Published: Université Paris-Est 2010
• Subjects: [PHYS] Physics; [PHYS] Physique; [CHIM] Chemical Sciences; [CHIM] Chimie; Electro-Fenton; Wastewater treatment; Advanced oxidation processes; Hydroxyl radicals
• Online Access: http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00601213; http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/60/12/13/PDF/TH2010PEST1084_complete.pdf

In this thesis, a detailed investigation has been carried out on the use of electro-Fenton technique for the oxidation of the some persistent organic pollutants for the sake of water remediation. This technique produces *OH radicals electrocatalytically and uses them to oxidize the organic pollutants. The overall study can be divided into three parts. In the first part, the removal of selected synthetic dyes and pesticides from water was investigated by using carbon felt (CF) cathode. The oxidation kinetics of the synthetic dyes (Acid Orange 7 and Basic Blue 3) and pesticides (picloram, propham, azinphos-methyl and clopyralid) were determined. Mineralization kinetics of the related organic pollutants in aqueous medium was followed by total organic carbon and chemical oxygen demand analysis. The overall mineralization was obtained in all cases. Identification and quantification of the oxidation by-products of the given synthetic dyes and pesticides were performed by high performance liquid chromatography, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and ion chromatography. These systematic analysis showed that the initial organic pollutants were converted into three intermediate forms; organic intermediates, short-chain aliphatic carboxylic acids and inorganic ions. Based on the intermediates identified, a plausible mineralization pathway was proposed for each dye and pesticide.In the second part of the study, the H2O2 production ability of carbon sponge (CS) as a novel cathode material for the electro-Fenton technique was investigated for the first time in the literature. The obtained results indicated that CS has a H2O2 production ability three times higher than the classical cathode CF.In the third and last part, the efficiency of boron doped diamond (BDD) as an anode in the electro-Fenton technique was investigated. Firstly, the oxidation and mineralization ability of BDD was tested for herbicide propham in anodic oxidation conditions. Then, the combination of CS and BDD electrode in the electro-Fenton technique was examined. The obtained results indicated that this combination allowed the most efficient results throughout the thesis. Moreover, the use of BDD anode in the electro-Fenton technique had considerable effect on the oxidation and mineralization of organics and especially carboxylic acids such as oxalic and oxamic acids which were highly resistant to mineralization in the case of Pt anode