Treatment of an Industrial Aqueous Discharge by Solar Photolysis in a Compound Parabolic Collector Photo Reactor

Despite the treatment applied at the refinery, the water leaving the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) still contains pollution that can be dangerous for flora and fauna. Therefore, additional non-conventional, effective and cost-effective treatment methods must be combined with conventional treatment methods. Furthermore, solar photolysis, based solely on solar radiation, is a very economical method of mineralization and disinfection that respects the concept of sustainability, since it uses available UV radiation without the addition of chemical reagents. Moreover, for a treatment time of 4 hours, measurements of pollution parameters such as COD,TSS, turbidity, TOC, CN and heavy metals (Zn²⁺, Cu²⁺, Pb, Fe²⁺) led to very interesting reductions, demonstrating efficiency of solar photolysis in the remediation of complex substances. Similarly, reductions of 84.81%, 70.23%, 85.03% and 82.08% were obtained for COD, BOD, TSS and turbidity respectively. In addition, heavy metals were eliminated with percentages of 100%, 33.67% and 83.33% respectively for Zn²⁺, Fe²⁺ and Pb.