The College of Engineering at the University of Baghdad witnessed the public defense of the Master’s thesis by Rusul Ahmed Jassim in the Department of Chemical Engineering. Her thesis, titled “Photocatalytic Degradation of Congo Red Dye in Wastewater Using Nano-Metal Oxides on Zeolite” was presented on Monday, May 26, 2025, in Professor Mahmoud Omar Hall within the Department of Chemical Engineering, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Ammar S. Abbas.
The study aims to explore the degradation of Congo red as a textile dye is a significant environmental concern. The photocatalytic advanced oxidation process using composites to degrade organic contaminants in the synthesis wastewater. The heterogeneous catalysts were prepared using the solid-state dispersion method for zeolite ZSM-5 and nano-metal oxides (TiO2, WO3, and TiO2/WO3).
The removal values decreased with the increasing initial concentration, and the best removal value was recorded at 90.57 and 89.47 % using TiO2/ZSM-5 and TiO2, respectively, for the lowest initial concentration (32 ppm) after 255 minutes of radiation. The composite heterogeneous photocatalysts were fitted with the Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetic model to study the surface reaction between solid heterogeneous catalysts and dye solutions. The photocatalyst TiO2/ZSM-5 has the highest degradation constant and the lowest equilibrium constant.
kinetics models were used to simulate the model based on the dispersion number estimates of the efficiency of different reactors (ideal and nonideal flow states up to a mixed flow reactor). The results showed ideal plug flow reactor was better than the nonideal plug flow reactor. The performance decreased with the increasing dispersion number and gave the worst performance in the mixed flow reactor. The ideal PFR using TiO2/ZSM-5 at an initial concentration of 32 ppm, with the highest removal at 93.55 %. The research revealed the photocatalytic process was a successful treatment method using the prepared zeolite composites to degrade the organic content of Congo red dye.
Following the academic discussion with the defense committee, the researcher was awarded a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering.
