Journal
POLYMER DEGRADATION AND STABILITY
Volume 103, Issue -, Pages 75-82Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.polymdegradstab.2014.02.018
Keywords
Advanced oxidation process; UV/H2O2 process; Polyvinyl alcohol degradation; Water-soluble polymer; Feeding strategy
Categories
Funding
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
- Ryerson University
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Water-soluble polymers contaminating industrial effluents create potential pollution concerns in water resources. In particular, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), which is quite abundant in wastewater effluents, is toxic and cannot be effectively treated by biological processes. The present study investigates the photo-oxidative degradation of aqueous PVA solutions in a UV/H2O2 photochemical reactor and the effect of hydrogen peroxide feeding strategies on the photoreactor performance. The total organic carbon (TOC) removal and the reduction of polymer molecular weights are determined for different initial polymer and hydrogen peroxide concentrations. By treating an aqueous solution containing 500 mg/L of a 130 kg/mol PVA and H2O2/PVA mass ratio of 10, the results show that nearly 87% of TOC removal was achieved when the photoreactor was operated for 2 h in stepwise operation (semi-batch). Accordingly, the number average molecular weight of the polymer is reduced to 10.9 kg/mol (91.6%). The oxidation reaction without UV light, however, is much less effective and results in merely 43% TOC removal and 21% reduction of polymer molecular weights. As for the case where the UV reactor was operated with no hydrogen peroxide, almost no PVA polymer degradation is achieved. This study also shows that the feeding strategy of hydrogen peroxide can have a significant impact on the degradation of PVA molecules in the UV/H2O2 process. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available