Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

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Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Dye industry--By-products; Distilling industries--By-products; Sewage--Purification; Academic theses;

Abstract

Dyes and pigments are used extensively in many important industries. They are also important environmental contaminants and must be removed in a cost-effective manner from wastewater. The present investigation focuses on the use of several inexpensive physico-chemical and biological systems. The goal is to assess and compare their ability to decolorize water containing a representative triphenylmethane dye ( crystal violet), a representative azo dye (Congo red), and a rum distillery waste effluent, also known as still bottoms. The selected processes were photodegradation, ozonation, adsorption and bioremediation. Photodegradation was studied with three light sources, namely a commercially available 42 Watt fluorescent bulb, an ultraviolet lamp and natural sunlight. These experiments were carried out without the need for cooling. The synthetic dyes were extensively decolorized in 1 and 2 days with the fluorescent bulb and sunlight respectively. The still bottoms showed a substantial loss of color (62%) only under ultraviolet light exposure for 20 hours. The ozonation process caused a complete loss of color in at most one hour with both dyes and the still bottoms. The adsorption experiments were carried out in a batch reactor with different adsorbents. Only activated charcoal produced complete decolorization of all the solutions studied in a short time. The performance of the other adsorbents varied depending on the adsorbent and the dye. Finally microbial bioremediation was studied in lake water, with or without lake sediment, and in Winogradsky columns. In large measure, adsorption to particulate material was the major mechanism for decolorization. These procedures were not very effective for still bottom waste. Biodegradation in solid phase cultures using the white rot fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium demonstrated that this fungus could decolorize the rum distillery waste.

Year of Submission

2011

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

First Advisor

John Bumpus

Second Advisor

Maureen Clayton

Third Advisor

Edward Brown

Comments

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Date Original

2011

Object Description

1 PDF file (84 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Included in

Chemistry Commons

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