Hybrid treatment strategies for 2,4,6-trichlorophenol degradation based on combination of hydrodynamic cavitation and AOPs.

Utilization of hybrid treatment schemes involving advanced oxidation processes and hydrodynamic cavitation in the wastewater treatment forms the prime focus of the present work. The initial phase of the work includes analysis of recent literature relating to the performance of combined approach based on hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) for degradation of different pollutants followed by a detailed investigation into degradation of 2,4,6-trichlorophenol (2,4,6-TCP). The degradation of the priority pollutant, 2,4,6-TCP, using combination of HC based on slit-venturi used as the cavitating device, ozone and HO has been investigated. The effect of operating pressure (2-5bar) and initial pH (3-11) have been investigated for the degradation using only HC. The degradation using only ozone (100-400mg/h) and only HO has also been studied. The efficacy of the combined operation of HC+O at different ozone flow rates (100-400mg/h) and the combined operation of HC+HO at different loadings of HO (2,4,6-TCP:HO as 1:1-1:7) have been subsequently investigated. The degradation efficacy has also been established for the combined treatment strategies of O+HO and HC+O+HO at the optimum conditions of temperature as 30°C, inlet pressure of 4bar and initial pH of 7. Extent of 2,4,6-TCP degradation, TOC and COD removal obtained for HC+O process were 97.1%, 94.4% and 78.5% respectively whereas for O+HO process, the values were 95.5%, 94.8% and 76.2% and for HC+O+HO process the extent of reduction were 100%, 95.6% and 80.9% in the same order. The combined treatment approach as HC+O+HO was established as the most efficient approach for complete removal of 2,4,6-TCP with near complete TOC removal.