Recycling strongly acidic wastewater as diluted H2SO4 after contaminants contained being removed was previously proposed, however, Cl(-I), a kind of contaminant contained in strongly acidic wastewater, is difficult to remove, which severely degrades the quality of recycled H2SO4. In this study, the removal of Cl(-I) using PbO2 was investigated and the involved mechanisms were explored. The removal efficiency of Cl(-I) reached 93.38% at 50℃ when PbO2/Cl(-I) mole ratio reached 2:1. The identification of reaction products shows that Cl(-I) was oxidized to Cl2, and PbO2 was reduced to PbSO4. Cl2 was absorbed by NaOH to form NaClO, which was used for the regeneration of PbO2 from the generated PbSO4. Cl(-I) was removed through two pathways, i.e., surface oxidation and •OH radical oxidation. •OH generated by the reaction of PbO2 and OH- plays an important role in Cl(-I) removal. The regenerated PbO2 had excellent performance to remove Cl(-I) after six-time regeneration. This study provided an in-depth understanding on the effective removal of Cl(-I) by the oxidation method.
Keywords: Cl(-I) removal; Cl• radicals; PbO(2) regeneration; Strongly acidic wastewater; •OH radicals.
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