Supported-catalyst CuO/AC with reduced cost and enhanced activity for the degradation of heavy oil refinery wastewater by catalytic ozonation process.

In this work, activated carbon-supported copper(II) oxide (CuO/AC) was prepared and used to degrade heavy oil refinery wastewater (HORW) by catalytic ozonation with the aim to develop low-cost and high-efficient supported-catalysts for degrading real recalcitrant industrial wastewater. Supported-catalyst CuO/AC was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), N2-physisorption, scanning electronic microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), and X-ray fluorescence (XRF). The degradation was mainly evaluated by chemical oxygen demand (COD), total organic carbon (TOC), 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), biodegradability and toxicity. Compared with unsupported-catalyst CuO or the mixed system of activated-AC and unsupported-catalyst CuO, supported-catalyst CuO/AC with reduced cost exhibited significantly enhanced activity for degrading HORW (5.0 g CuO-5%/AC, 90 mg/L O3, and 7.3 pH). TEM analysis showed that the high activity of supported-catalyst CuO-5%/AC might be ascribed to the fact that CuO particles were small and highly dispersed on AC. Mass spectrum spectrometry (MS) analysis revealed that the organic components in HORW were first degraded to small molecule oxidation products, which were then oxidized or mineralized further. The influence of CuO loading, CuO/AC dose, ozone dose and initial pH on the degradation efficiency was also investigated. The results of the present work showed that CuO/AC could be a promising supported-catalyst for catalyzing ozonation degradation of HORW.