Consolidation and enlargement of partnership at regional and European level concerning utilization of electrochemical methods applied for waste waters control and pollution abatement

The general objective of the project aimed at continuing and enlarging the international collaboration in the field of electrocatalytic processes of oxidation and electrochemical reduction of certain organic and inorganic substances, which would represent the scientific support for applications in the environmental protection area.
INCD-ECOIND, as a partner within this project, attended activities that were carried out at University of Venice, Italy, Department of Environmental Sciences. The experiments were aimed at abating pollution for water containing 2,6 – Dinitrophenol by using cathode reduction and adsorption on granular activated carbon.
By applying cathode reduction, the removal yield of 2,6 – Dinitrophenol reached 96% at 2 A, 100 min electrolysis duration and an initial pollutant concentration of 8 mg/L. The adsorption process led to 99% removal efficiency for any of the samples with initial pollutant concentration that ranged from 59 to 221 mg/L 2,6 – Dinitrophenol.
In addition, it was possible to collect documented information about preparation and characterization of new composite electrode materials and their utilization for the treatment of waste waters containing azo dyes, phenols and surfactants.
Also, as part of this project, INCD-ECOIND carried out experiments in its own laboratories. A series of modified SnO2 anodes (Ti/SnO2 – Sb2O5 and Ti/RuO2/SnO2 – Sb2O5) were prepared and they were used for degrading Reactive Blue 4 dye. The anodes were characterised by cyclic voltammetry. The results suggested that oxidation of the dye did not occur directly but with the simultaneous evolution of oxygen. The process was monitored by recording UV-VIS spectra and analyzing samples for COD. The findings showed that degradation of the dye on SnO2 anodes led to CO2.