Application of Heterogeneous Photo Catalyst for the Treatment of the Yamuna River Water in Presence of Sunlight

Paramita Ghosh; Ram Babu Pachwarya; Sunit Kumar

Abstract

Water pollution is a major threat in all developing countries including India. Also, water is facing a severe shortage problem all over the world. It has been predicted that by 2035, water shortage will be one of the most serious political and social issues in many developing countries. Being a basic necessity for life, water requires special attention for its conservation and/or treatment of wastewater. Although the degradation of all water-soluble organic pollutants in wastewater is very challenging, the Photo Catalytic Degradation (PCD) of water-soluble Organic Pollutants by sunlight, anyhow, seems to be a promising technology. Despite having substantial advantages, this technique (PCD) is yet to be implemented on a large scale for treatment of river water. The present study observes the efficacy of photocatalyst, Titanium Oxide, (TiO2) in the treatment of polluted Yamuna River water. A comparative study shows that the rate of removal of Organic pollutants is much higher in Sun light rather than in artificial light. The study also emphasizes the dependance of degradation on intensity of sunlight and other different external parameters like Catalyst concentration, pH of wastewater etc. The observations suggested that the Photo catalyst, TiO2, can be proved to have the efficacy to fully remove/degrade most of organic pollutants present in polluted water of river Yamuna in presence of sun light and to some extent in artificial light.