COMPARATIVE EFFICIENCY BETWEEN SOLAR PHOTOCATALYTIC AND MICROBIAL PROCESS FOR ORANGE DYE DEGRADATION

Abstract

Wastewater is exhausted in large volume every year during the manufacturing processes of textile industries such as dyeing and finishing. The effluent that comes from textile manufacturing factories does not only cause coloration of water but is also potentially harmful and poses health hazard to human and aquatic life. Physical and chemical treatment do not remove the colour and reduce the dye compound concentration. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of degradation of Orange G dye using solar photocatalytic and microbial catalytic. Solar photocatalytic process was studied by using Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) to remove dye contaminants while photocatalyst and bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa sp. were used as microbial catalyst to degrade the Orange G dye. This experiment deals with the percentage of degradation of the Orange G dye at different pH values and concentrations. The reaction time was set to 40 minutes. The results show that the degradation efficiency of Orange G dye was higher when treated with microbial catalytic compared to solar photocatalytic. The percentages of degradation of Orange G dye under solar photocatalyst were 22.6%, 16.14%, 31.07%, at 10 ppm, 15 ppm and 20 ppm concentrations respectively while the percentage of degradation of Orange G dye under microbial catalytic were 86%, 86.33% and 91.09%, at 10 ppm, 15 ppm and 20 ppm concentration respectively. Additionally, higher efficiency in the degradation process was observed in alkaline conditions compared to acidic conditions as the increase in pH value had caused the increase in percentage of degradation of the Orange G dye.