PNNL

Abstract

Removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) from wastewater has been of considerable interest for several decades, but detailed mechanisms are poorly known. Here we present an environmental friendly method for removing COD from coking wastewater by using chemically reduced nontronite (rNAu-2). Hydroxyl radicals (·OH) produced from oxidation of structural Fe(II) in rNAu-2 in phosphate buffer at pH 6.5, oxidized various compounds in wastewater and thus significantly decreased COD (from 199.10 ± 0.90 to 80.4 ± 1.97 mg/L) within 120 h. The amount of COD removal was positively correlated with the amount of ·OH production, with removal efficiency depending on pH and buffer type. Mass spectrometric analysis of dissolved organic matter (DOM) suggested an oxidative pathway for COD removal. Excitation-emission matrix (EEM) fluorescence spectroscopy showed that aromatic protein-like compounds accounted for a large fraction of DOM in initial wastewater, but after rNAu-2 treatment, their proportion decreased. A sequential treatment of wastewater by rNAu-2 and a common wastewater bacterium Alcaligenes faecalis demonstrated that different orders of chemical and biological treatments affected COD removal efficiency, likely because chemical and microbial treatments targeted different compounds in coking wastewater.