Photocatalytic Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Processes for Polluted Water from the Northern Oilfields in Iraq

Abstract

Produced water is one of the most dangerous types of pollution for the environment, specifically the soil, since it is full of oil, suspended particulates, dissolved compounds, and various other pollutants. This research describes the advanced oxidation process (AOPs) that were studied to purge the generated water from the Al Khabaz oilfield located in (Northern Iraq – Kirkuk governorate) of any oil content using two photocatalytic homogeneous and heterogeneous processes in the batch system under optimal conditions: homogeneous processes, including Photo-Fenton (hydrogen peroxide, ferrous sulfates, and ultraviolet light), and Fenton process (hydrogen peroxide, and ferrous sulfates), and Direct-Photolysis (ultraviolet only) were used studied the effects of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) & ferrous sulfate (Fe+2), doses, irradiation time, pH Value, and intensity of UV to the oil removal efficiency. This work investigated the maximum efficiency in Photo Fenton = 85.68%, in Fenton = 75.01%, and in direct UV photolysis = 56.64%. The heterogeneous photocatalytic process (TiO2/UV) studied the effect of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles doses and UV intensity. The results show that the optimal efficiency achieved was 60.95%. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Fourier Transforms Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) were used to look into the characteristics of the catalyst titanium dioxide nanoparticles. TiO2 NPs seemed to be spherical in the SEM test, and their FT-IR analysis absorption values ranged from 424.77 to 3403.71 cm-1. Their sizes varied between 31.57 and 38.40 nm, and XRD revealed details regarding their chemical composition.