Heterogeneous Photocatalytic Pilot Plant for Cyanide Decontamination: A Novel Solar Rotary Photoreactor

Abstract

During the gold extraction in opencast mining, many hazardous substances, such as cyanide, are spilled into the water bodies. This study's aim was to develop a novel rotary photocatalytic TiO2-based reactor to remove cyanide from polluted water using a rotary concentrator photoreactor (RCPR). This pilot-scale reactor was tested with synthetic cyanide water at concentrations from 0.05 to 50 ppm, varying the pH and commercial TiO2 load. The optimal conditions from experimental data were 87.4% of cyanide removal and catalyst load of 0.30 g/L at pH 9.5. Further, samples of cyanide water from an opencast gold mine were treated, achieving removal of 68.7% after 240 min. Our value-added is the rotary motion of the set of four glass tubes, achieving satisfactory performance, which is promising for cyanide wastewater treatment with a more compact footprint than a standard CPC solar photoreactor. Thus, it was possible to reduce mass and heat transfer limitations with a simple design by considering this photoreactor as a photocatalytic process intensifier.

A Sustainable Decision Support System for Drinking Water Systems: Resiliency Improvement against Cyanide Contamination

“…Singh and Balomajumder [33] studied the phytoremediation potential of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) for cyanide and phenol decontamination simultaneously and evaluated the effect of pH and contaminant concentration on the removal. Similarly, Tirado-Muñoz, et al [34] built a novel rotary photocatalytic reactor, used TiO2 as the catalyst, and tested the reactor to remove different concentrations of cyanide varying from 0.05 to 50 ppm. They also optimized the pH and catalyst load in different conditions.…”