Innovative approach to purifying petroleum refinery wastewater: The role of photocatalytic functionalized MWCNTs

Abstract

The treatment of wastewater generated by oil refineries employing photocatalysis offers a new, environmentally friendly approach. Carbon nanotubes that are multiwall and functionalized (f-MWCNTs) provide a catalyst for this method and utilize sunlight as the energy source. Material and Methods: f-MWCNTs were synthesized from stock solutions of wastewater from Samawah refinery, using ultrasonic-assisted oxidation. To examine the success of the method, we employed FTIR, XRD, FESEM and zeta potential measurements to show that chemical reactivity and absorption capacity increased with f-MWCNTs. These methods revealed that upscale manufacturing will meet any increase in demand for larger supplies. Why Do It: The resulting course of this research was to answer this question. We found that we could use Ordinary Sunlight or sunlight accompanied with a DPSS (diode pumped solid state) laser (532 nm, 120 mW/mm2) as energy source for treatment by f-MWCNTs. Results: The degradation kinetics of refinery wastewater under photocatalysis showed a good fit with pseudo-second-order model, verifying an important connection between the adsorption of pollutants and available active sites on f-MWCNTs. Data indicate that under sunlight, the rate constant (K) was 0.0025 g· mg^-1 · min^-1 and maximum adsorption capacity 55.55 mg/g. Even though its adsorption capacity was smaller (30.30 mg/g), the DPSS laser's irradiation produced a higher rate constant (K=0.0115 g·mg^). Under the conditions of the DPSS laser, we were told that degradation rates peak 71.5 % and 80.91 % under sunlight they%E2 %€%99re reported.