SOLAR DETOXIFICATION OF NITROGLYCERINE-CONTAMINATED WATER USING IMMOBILIZED TITANIA

A solar-driven photocatalytic process based on TiO2 has been developed to destroy nitroglycerine (NG) in aqueous solutions. The study involved the design and construction of a plate type photoreactor with immobilized TiO2 (Degussa P25). The bench scale experiments with the solar (one sun) photocatalytic system demonstrated destruction of NG from an initial concentration of 500 to less than 1 ppm, with CO2, nitrate ion and water being the major products of the decomposition. The platinization of TiO2 surface did not significantly affect the rate of NG decomposition. Rhodamine dye, as a model compound, was also photocatalytically decomposed in the solar photoreactor from concentrations of 10 to less than 0.01 ppm in 20 min.