Phototreatment of palm oil mill effluent (POME) over Cu/TiO2 photocatalyst

Abstract

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 BCREC UNDIP. All rights reserved.