UV/oxidant degradation of pre-treated palm oil mill effluent in a photocatalytic fuel cell
Attributable to the prosperous palm oil production growth in Malaysia, the generated palm oil mill effluent (POME) poses a high threat owing to its highly polluted characteristic. As the disposal of this effluent raised public environmental concern, POME pollution abatement and potential energy r...
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Format: | Final Year Project / Dissertation / Thesis |
Published: |
2022
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://eprints.utar.edu.my/5705/1/fyp_EV_2022_YJCT.pdf http://eprints.utar.edu.my/5705/ |
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Summary: | Attributable to the prosperous palm oil production growth in Malaysia, the generated
palm oil mill effluent (POME) poses a high threat owing to its highly polluted
characteristic. As the disposal of this effluent raised public environmental concern,
POME pollution abatement and potential energy recovery from the effluent are flagged
up as a research topic of interest. In this study, a new photocatalytic fuel cell system
with employment of ZnO/Zn nanorod array photoanode, CuO/Cu cathode and
persulfate oxidant was successfully designed to improve the degradation of organic
pollutant in POME and simultaneous energy production. The photoelectrodes were
fabricated and characterized by Field emission scanning electron microscopy with
energy, X-ray diffraction, UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and Mott–
Schottky plot analysis. Owing to the properties of strong oxidant of persulfate, the
proposed PFC system has exhibited exceptional performance, increasing the chemical
oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency from 39.6% to 96.2% and amount of
electricity generated from 5.7 to 35.6 mW/cm2 relative to the bare PFC system. The
best PFC system performance was yielded under optimal conditions of 2.5mM of
persulfate oxidant, POME dilution factor of 1:20 and natural solution pH of 8.51.
Subsequently, a radical scavenging test was conducted, determining that the
predominant radical species were sulfate radical (SO4
-
•) and hydroxyl radical (•OH)
contributed to effective removal of organics pollutant in POME and generation of
electricity. The following recycling test affirmed the stability and durability
photoanode after 4 continuous repetition usage and the cost analysis revealed the
economic viability of PFC system serving as a post-treatment for degradation of
POME. These findings contribute toward enhancing the sustainability criteria and
economic viability of palm oil by adopting sustainable and efficient POME posttreatment technology. |
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