Photocatalytic reactor design and its application in real wastewater treatment using TiO₂ coated on the stainless-steel mesh

The application of wastewater treatment using TiO₂ coated on the stainless-steel mesh is promising for disintegrating organic pollutants in wastewater. This research successfully coated TiO₂ particles on stainless-steel mesh for the photocatalyst process by using the dip-coating method. This method was selected due to its simplicity and low cost, as well as its extensive application prospects in wastewater treatment. The photocatalytic oxidation of real wastewater treatment was developed and designed for a photo-reactor in terms of flow rate (varied on 2.0-4.0 L/min) and light distance (varied on 5.0-15.0 cm), whereas the preparation of the material process was investigated in terms of TiO₂ catalyst dosage (varied on 1.0-3.0 g) and layers of coating (varied on 1 to 3 layers). Experiments were employed to degrade organic wastewater from methylene blue (MB) for a prelim experiment and real wastewater effluent testing for the application. The optimized TiO₂ dosage was 2.0 g with 2 layers of coating coated on the stainless-steel mesh. The designed photo-reactor was optimized with a flow rate of 2.0 L/min and a light distance of 10.0 cm to treat the organic pollutants in raw domestic wastewater effluent on photocatalytic activity. MB successfully degraded about 96% in 3 h under UV-C irradiation after adsorption equilibrium was completed (3 h), whereas the efficiency of BOD removal was 89% under UV-C irradiation in 4 h. Therefore, TiO₂ (2.0 g) coated on stainless-steel mesh with 2 layers of the coating prepared by dip-coating is a potentially effective alternative for real wastewater treatment.