Degradation of p-cresol in the presence of UV light driven in an integrated system containing photocatalytic and packed bed biofilm reactor

Abstract

Integrating photocatalysis and biodegradation has shown great potential in wastewater treatment technology. In this study, the degradation of p-cresol in water has been investigated through an integrated system comprising of photocatalytic and packed bed biofilm reactor (PBBR). In the photocatalytic reactor, the biodegradability index (BOD5/COD, BOD5/TOC) of the p-cresol solution was first shown to increase (from 0.098±0.023 to 0.59±0.089 for BOD5/COD and from 0.27±0.030 to 1.74±0.03 for BOD5/TOC). The pseudo-first-order rate constant (kap) was found to be 0.011 min−1. The % removal of the integrated system was found to be 98.43±1.31% at an initial concentration of 700 mg L-1 and residence time of 120 h, which was significantly higher than the PBBR operated alone (34.82±2.62%) under optimized conditions (pH 7.0 and T = 32±2 °C). Using an integrated approach, the efficient removal of p-cresol opens novel future perspectives for catalytic degradation using chemical oxidation. © 2023