Comparison between response surface and kinetic modelling of the photocatalytic oxidation of cyanide

MARUGAN, J.; VAN GRIEKEN, R.; CASSANO, A.E.; ALFANO, O.M.

Cubatão/SP, Brasil

Congreso; Encontro sobre Aplicações Ambientais de Processos Oxidativos Avançados - IV EPOA; 2007

Centro de Capacitação e Pesquisa em Meio Ambiente - CEPEMA/USP

Cyanide species are common pollutants of effluents derived from precious metal mining, electro-plating and coal gasification processes. Traditional cyanide oxidation processes, such as alkaline chlorination, ozone or peroxide treatments, do not achieve the complete removal of metal-cyanide complexes. In contrast, the photocatalytic oxidation has shown a high efficiency in the removal not only of free cyanides, but also of iron, copper and gold cyanocomplexes. However, during the last two decades, most of the research efforts in heterogeneous photocatalytic processes have been devoted to the investigation of the fundamental mechanisms and/or phenomenological aspects of the photocatalytic processes, whereas fewer contributions have been developed from the photoreactor engineering viewpoint.