Treatment of olive mill wastewater by photooxidation with ZrO2-doped TiO2nanocomposite and its reuse capability

Zirconium dioxide (zirconia, ZrO2)-doped TiO2 (TiO2/ZrO2) nanocomposite was used for the photocatalytic oxidation of pollutant parameters [COD components (CODtotal, CODdissolved and CODinert)], polyphenols (catechol, 3-hydroxybenzoic acid, tyrosol and 4-hydroxybenzoic acid) and total polyaromatic amines [aniline, 4-nitroaniline, o-toluidine and o-anisidine] from the olive mill effluent wastewaters at different operational conditions such as at different mass ratios of ZrO2 (50, 25, 14, 10 and 5 wt%) in the TiO2/ZrO2 nanocomposite, at different TiO2/ZrO2 photocatalyst concentrations (1, 4, 15 and 50 mg/L) and pH values (4.0-7.0-10.0) under 300 W UV irradiations, respectively. Under the optimized conditions (pH = 4.6, 15 mg/L ZrO2/TiO2 nanocomposite with a ZrO2 mass ratio of 14 wt%, 300 W UV light, after 60 min photooxidation time, at 21°C), the maximum CODdissolved, total phenol and total aromatic amines photooxidation yields were 99%, 89% and 95%, respectively. High pollutant removal (89%) yields after sequential five times utilization of ZrO2/TiO2 nanocomposite show that this catalyst can be effectively used commercially in the treatment of olive mill effluent.