FURI | Spring 2019

Functional Materials in The Electrocatalytic Treatment of Pollutants From Oil & Gas Industry Wastewater

Persistent organic pollutants(e.g. benzene, phenol, xylenes, etc) in effluents produced by the oil and gas industry are deemed to be health hazards due to their carcinogenic properties. The current conventional water treatment technologies are not able to effectively remove such persistent micropollutants. Thus, this work aims at using electrochemical advanced oxidation processes to achieving complete mineralization of organics. A novel electrochemical cell has been designed and constructed, and initial tests demonstrate 90% removal of phenol in continuous flow at 8.0 V. Future work will optimize operational variables to reduce operating costs while maximizing removal of pollutants.