Enhancement the Phenylmethyl ester photo degradability in the presence of O3 and H2O2

Abstract This study was conducted to evaluate the synergistic effect of O3 and H2O2 on the Phenylmethyl ester (PME) photo-catalytic degradability by UVC/ZnO (UZ). To this purpose, H2O2 and O3 were added in the UZ reaction environment and their synergistic effects in the improvement of UZ performance were investigated. Under selected conditions (ZnO = 1.0 g L−1, PME concentration = 15 mg L−1, H2O2 = 10 mM, O3 = 1.1 g h−1, pH 9.0, reaction time = 15 min), the maximum degradation and mineralization rates of (23 %, 100 % and 96 %) and (7 %, 25 % and 25 %) were obtained for UZ, UZ- H2O2 (UZH) and UZ- O3 (UZO), respectively. Increase of H2O2 and flow rate of ozone above optimum values was not improved the removal performance. The value of robs (mg L−1 min) and energy consumption in the degradation of PME by UZ, UZH and UZO were estimated (0.18, 4.95 and 2.1 mg L−1 min) and (206.72, 25 and 93.75 kW h m–3), respectively. The obtained results indicated UZH and UZO processes due to the higher values of robs, a good cost-effective and more efficient, can be applied in the degradation of PME, although lack sufficient capability of them to complete mineralization of PME was observed.