In recent past development of silver nanoparticles and their application in the treatment of wastewaters is becoming a major area of research. It is mainly applicable to the removal of three major pollutants like pesticides, heavy metals, and microorganisms. Variety of synthesis techniques have been reported for preparation and characterization of silver nanoparticles. In our research, we synthesized Ag nanoparticles supported on ZrO 2 and ZrO 2-CeO 2 by a "deposit-precipitation method" as the first step and later sequentially synthesized Ag-Au supported on ZrO 2 and ZrO 2-CeO 2 by Redox method. Catalysts were evaluated in catalytic wet air oxidation (CWAO) of methyl tert-butyl ether and phenol. The CWAO is a liquid phase process for the treatment of organic pollutants operating at temperatures in the range of 100-325°C at 5-200 bar pressures. The selectivity and efficient of catalysts were evaluated by total organic carbon (TOC) and high-performance liquid chromatograph (HPLC). Ideally, the total mineralization of pollutants into CO 2 and H 2 O is preferred.

Catalytic wet air oxidation (CWAO) is a nonconventional wastewater treatment, consisting of oxygen pressure releasing inside a reactor in order to degrade organic compounds dissolved in water, using a solid catalyst in the presence of an activated O 2 species, usually at temperatures ranges of 125-250°C and pressures of 10-50 bar. CWAO can reduce operating costs of conventional treatment due to the use of ideal catalyst that is able to improve reaction conditions at temperatures and pressures as mild as possible, simultaneously setting high catalytic activity and long-term stability of heterogeneous catalysts. Oxygenated fuels are gasoline additives in reformulated gasoline and oxyfuels. In the beginning, they provided an alternative solution of environmental problems, such as greenhouse gas emissions and octane enhancement, caused by fossil fuel use. The oxygenated fuels frequently used are methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE), and tert-amyl methyl ether (TAME). However, there is environmental impact from oxygenated fuel hydrocarbons related to widespread contamination of groundwater and other natural waters. Our research group developed a wide study in order to evaluate several catalysts (Ru, Au, Cu, and Ag supported on Al 2 O 3 , Al 2 O 3 -CeO 2 , and TiO 2 -CeO 2 ) and to obtain the best for the efficiency of the oxidation process.Nonconventional Wastewater Treatment for the Degradation of Fuel Oxygenated… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.84250 blended in gasoline in some metropolitan areas, heavily polluted by carbon monoxide, and to reduce carbon monoxide and ozone concentrations [14].

Pt (0.5, 1 and 1.5 wt%) was impregnated by incipient wetness on SBA-15 and corresponding  Ga-modified (3, 5, 10 and 20 wt%) composites. Gallium nitrate was incorporated directly during the mesoporous siliceous network synthesis. Materials were characterized by N2 physisorption, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. SBA-15 had surface area greater than 800 m²/g that decreased by Ga incorporation in binary materials. It seemed that tetrahedral gallium was well-incorporated into mesoporous silica walls. Pt dispersion slightly diminished (as to that on SBA-15) by augmenting Ga concentration in composites. Corresponding pore size maxima shifted to lower diameters (as to that of non-impregnated supports) after platinum loading suggesting Pt crystals inside pores of SBA-15 and Ga-modified carriers. Large cubic platinum crystals were observed over all prepared materials probably due to sintering (during calcining at 500 °C) of metallic particles weakly interacting with the carriers surface. After materials annealing (500 °C under static air) metallic platinum was evidenced (by XRD) pointing out to noble metal reduction that could be facilitated by decomposition of organic remains from Si alkoxide used during supports synthesis which presence was ascertained by FTIR.

Electron beam (E-Beam) heavy oil upgrading, which uses unique features of electron beam irradiation, can be a solution to minimize the critical problem of upgrading heavy oil. Enormous amounts of heavy oil reserves exist in the world, but the lack of cost-effective technologies hinders the development of heavy oil reserves. One of the critical problems of heavy oil or bitumen is that it takes large amounts of thermal energy and expensive catalysts to upgrade. E-Beam processing will allow lowering the thermal energy and sharply reduce the investment in catalysts. The design can be simpler and will contribute to lowering the production and transportation cost of heavy oil and bitumen. Introduction One of the greatest challenges facing our continued use of petroleum in the global economy, as we transition to a balanced use various energy sources, is that the largest remaining reserves of petroleum are made of large and difficult-to-upgrade molecules. For example, three oil sand areas (Abthabasca, Cold Lake, and Peace River) in Canada contain as much as 172.2 billion bbl of remaining estimated reserves (Elliot 2008). However, fundamental limitations of current extraction, refining, and upgrading technologies limit production and development to 1% of heavy oil deposits worldwide (Yan 2002; Dickenson 1997). Minimum upgrading implies reducing the oil viscosity without adding costly solvents to facilitate transportation. The most severe and common upgrading is breaking down heavier molecules to obtain higher quality products such as gas oil and gasoline, and it requires a substantial amount of thermal energy and expensive catalysts. Current upgrading methods based on thermo-catalytic-cracking (TCC) require very large capital investments, high operating costs, and vast and complex facilities, and they experience chronic bottlenecks and unused capacities. The biggest limitation is that any TCC-based upgrading requires about one third of the energy produced for processing in the form of steam and heat (Zussupov 2006; Raseev 2003). Since the mid 1920s, the research on radiation chemistry of hydrocarbons has been conducted by many laboratories all over the world. In 1965, Salvoy and Falconer showed that using n-C16 with VDG E-Beam generator and gamma ray radiation the effects of irradiation of n-hexadecane are apparently independent of source and dose rate. Two researchers using a viscous, highly aromatic, low paraffin (1.5%), high sulfur (2%), high metal content crude under a very high dose rate (1~4KGy/s) for radiation thermal cracking experiment, Zaykin et al. (2001, 2002, 2004) observed significant effect of E-Beam irradiation on the hydrocarbons that they used. However, their reports lack information such as description of the experimental procedure, dose calibration, and sample etc. Furthermore, their samples were common to Kazakhstan and the Caspian area and might not produce similar results in other fluids. Therefore, to establish a rigorous relationship of cause effect in radiation experiment, it requires well-defined oil samples. In this study, we extensively investigated radiation effects on hydrocarbons to resolve these unknowns and ambiguity of experimental results of previous works. To accurately analyze the fundamental behavior of E-beam radiation on hydrocarbon, we studied; pure n-hexadecane, a naphtha cut which is a combination of well-defined hydrocarbon group, and asphaltene to see the radiation effect on heavy and very viscous components. The distillation time for hexadecane under our radiation experiment is significantly shorter than for the nonradiation experiment which may indicate a new reaction was caused by electron beam radiation which helped distill it faster. The higher vapor temperature profile of our naphtha radiation experiment indicates the presence of an exothermic reaction generated by electron beam irradiation. The most interesting result got from the asphaltene experiment indicates that C-C bond cleavage was enhanced by radiation thermal cracking. These experimental results give us strong confidence for application of E-Beam technology on E&P industry.