Remediation of wastewaters by high energy irradiation process

Complete text of publication follows. The γ-ray and electron beam induced oxidation of Na-phenolate solutions were studied by varying the oxygen concentration and the absorbed dose. The experiments were made in a stainless steel high pressure autoclave equipped with a magnetic stirrer. The oxygen pressure in the autoclave was varied up to 20 bars. The rate of oxidation was followed by measuring the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and the Total Organic Carbon content (TOC) of the solutions. The figure shows the COD values of phenol solution measured before and after irradiation. The starting concentrations were 10 mmol dm-3, and 2 mol dm-3. Samples were irradiated in O2 atmosphere, at normal pressure (square) or at 20 bar (triangle) and also in N2O/O2 5/1 mixture (open circle). In the figure the TOC values are also shown (open square). The COD and TOC values change nearly linearly with the dose. The increase in oxygen pressure results in increasing mineralization rate.