Catalytic ozonation for the treatment of municipal wastewater by iron loaded zeolite A

The work evaluates the performance of catalytic ozonation process on iron-loaded zeolite 4A (Fe-Z4A) for the chemical oxygen demand (COD) reduction of municipal wastewater. The effectiveness of adsorption (Fe-Z4A), ozonation (O-3), and catalytic (Fe-Z4A/O-3) ozonation processes were compared at wastewater pH. Furthermore, the removal of total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), the effect of catalyst dose, the effect of tertiary butyl alcohol (TBA), reuse performance, and kinetic studies were conducted to understand the application of Fe-Z4A for municipal wastewater treatment. The results revealed that Fe-Z4A/O-3 process significantly remove COD and TKN in comparison with single processes. The results further reveal that Fe-Z4A show reasonably better reuse performance after three successive runs. The TBA effect indicates that Fe-Z4A/O-3 process follow radical mechanism. The kinetic studies revealed that Fe-Z4A/O-3 process follow pseudo-first-order kinetics for the treatment of COD. Moreover, the rate constant value was found significantly larger for the catalytic ozonation process in comparison with ozonation and adsorption. The experimental results reveal that Fe-Z4A catalyze the COD reduction from municipal wastewater.