Toxic organic material and heavy metal are industrial waste materials which are found in many industries. If these materials occur simultaneously in wastewater, they can make the treatment difficult. In mixed industrial wastewater, the presence of metal ions can retard the degradation of organic contaminants and the efficiency of recovery of the metal is reduced by the presence of the organic compounds. The objectives of this investigation are to study the effects of copper ions on the photolytic degradation of 2,4 dichlorophenoxyacetic (2,4-D) and on the effects of 2,4-D on the electrolytic recovery of copper and describe a combined photolytic and electrolytic cell system for the simultaneous removal of copper and the degradation of 2,4-D.
The results show that a photolytic cell alone can achieve the degradation of 2,4-D at pH 3.5 but leaves copper in the solution. 2,4-D is degraded 86% in the presence of 100 mgdm3 copper ions by the 400w UV-probe in photolytic system. Recovery of copper and degradation of 2,4-D are 81.02% and 2% respectively in electrolytic system. A combined photolytic electrochemical system using activated carbon concentrator cathode achieves the rapid simultaneous degradation of 2,4-D and recovery of copper. The results show that the removal of copper is 90% and 99.9% degradation of 2,4-D in a solution containing 100 mgdm3 copper and 50 mgdm3 2,4-D.
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