Photocatalytic degradation of aerobically treated palm oil mill effluent using titania nanotubes prepared via hydrothermal technique

Adsorption and photocatalytic degradation of aerobically-treated palm oil mill effluent (AT-POME), a prominent effluent across palm oil producing countries, using commercially available TiO2P25 Degussa powder and titania nanotubes (TNT) prepared via hydrothermal technique was investigated. The as-prepared TNT exhibited tubular, open ended structure, unchanged crystallinity as compared to TiO2and a surface area close to 200m2/g, almost 4 folds as compared to commercial TiO2. TNT outperformed TiO2in terms of adsorption and photodegradation of AT-POME under ultraviolet (UV) light irradiation, where TNT was able to remove up to 81% of AT-POME coloration as opposed to commercial TiO2(69.5%) within the same experiment duration. The results indicate that TNT performs better compared to commercial TiO2for wastewater remediation via photocatalysis