Study On Catalytic Degradation Of Organic Wastewater By Spontaneous Analogous Fuel Cell Technology

The organic wastewaters become the focus of the field of water treatment all the time. Some organic compounds are harmful to the environment and human being due to its hardly biodegradability, toxicity. Analogous fuel cell technology is proposed to catalytic degrade organic wastewater. The innovative concepts are that at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, the reactor can accelerate the removal of organic wastewater and the generation of electricity. In the paper we choose formic acid, benzoic acid,2,4-dichlorophenol as simulated pollutants, which exist in the industrial organic wastewater commonly, to study the process of the technology.In the article, we optimized the influencing factors to the performance of the device such as the flow rate of the anode and cathode, the concentration of the electrolyte, osmotic pressure and the value of pH, and discussed the effect of treating simulated organic wastewater in the best working conditions. Specific content as follows:(1) The catalytic oxidation of simulated organic wastewater in the anode. When using formic acid (50 mL) simulated wastewater as the andic electrolyte, using hydrogen peroxide (50 mL) as cathodic electron acceptors, the cross area of the reaction is 16 cm2, the maximum open circuit voltage of the device is 688mV in four hours, which has a disproportionate impact on the concentration of formic acid, hydrogen peroxide and the flow rate. Adding sodium sulphate to the anode and cathode, the current density and coulombic efficiency generated are higher than those adding sodium chloride instead. The highest current density is 13.8 A/cm2, the removal rate of COD reaches 44.24% and the coulombic efficiency is 13.93%.(2) In presence of benzoic acid (50 mL) as simulated wastewater, H2O2 (50 mL) and a flow rate of 13.5 mL per minute, the cross area of the reaction is 16 cm2, the open circuit voltage reaches a stable value of 65 mV. The current densty increaes with the concentration of electrolyte increased, and decreases while the value of pH increased. The removal rate of COD reaches 22.14%.(3) The catalytic degradation of simulated organic wastewater in the anode and cathode. When choosing 2,4-dichlorophenol as the cathodic simulated wasterwater, using formic acid as the andic simulated wasterwater, the cross area of the reaction is 16 cm2, the device has a good performance in generating electricity. The open circuit voltage reaches 490 mV and the maximum current density is 2 A/m2. The highest power density is 741.2 mW/m2. In addition, the device has a better sewage treatment capacity. The removal rate of COD reaches 35.5% and the coulombic efficiency is 2.5%, the removal of 2,4-dichlorophenol is up to 83.4%. The performance of generating electricity and treating wastewater is increased with the concentration of electricity at first, and then decreased to benzoic acid as the andic simulated wasterwater.The research shows that analogous fuel cell technology can be applied to the degradation of organic wastewater and simultaneously generating electric energy, which makes the water treatment a wide application prospect.