Phototreatment of Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) over Cu/TiO2 Photocatalyst

Kim Hoong Ng (Faculty of Chemical & Natural Resources Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Lebuhraya Tun Razak, 26300 Gambang, Kuantan, Pahang)
Mohd. Rizauddin Deraman (Faculty of Chemical & Natural Resources Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Lebuhraya Tun Razak, 26300 Gambang, Kuantan, Pahang)
Chun How Ang (Faculty of Chemical & Natural Resources Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Lebuhraya Tun Razak, 26300 Gambang, Kuantan, Pahang)
Soo Kee Chong (Faculty of Chemical & Natural Resources Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Lebuhraya Tun Razak, 26300 Gambang, Kuantan, Pahang)
Zi Ying Kong (Faculty of Chemical & Natural Resources Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Lebuhraya Tun Razak, 26300 Gambang, Kuantan, Pahang)
Maksudur R. Khan (Faculty of Chemical & Natural Resources Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Lebuhraya Tun Razak, 26300 Gambang, Kuantan, Pahang)
Chin Kui Cheng (Faculty of Chemical & Natural Resources Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Lebuhraya Tun Razak, 26300 Gambang, Kuantan, Pahang)

Bulletin of Chemical Reaction Engineering & Catalysis
2014: BCREC Volume 9 Issue 2 Year 2014 (August 2014)

The current work reported on the use of different formulations of Cu/TiO2 photocatalysts for the UV-irradiation of palm oil mills effluent (POME). Different copper loadings, viz. 2 wt%, 5 wt%, 10 wt%, 15 wt%, 20 wt% and 25 wt% were doped onto titania. XRD pattern confirmed the presence of anatase TiO2 as primary phase due to mild calcination temperature (573 K). Photo-decomposition of POME over 20 wt% Cu/TiO2 exhibited the highest conversion (27.0%) attributed to its large pore diameter (20.0 nm). In addition, optimum loading was 0.83 g/l. © 2014 by Authors, Published by BCREC Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)