Abstract

Petrochemical wastewater, which is a complex solution of various chemicals, can cause severe environmental problems after being disposed to environment. Here, we investigate the removal of petrochemical contaminants at different periods and pH levels using three distinct processes: conventional ozonation, adsorption and nanostructured MgO-enhanced catalytic ozonation. The latter is found to be an economical and efficient new approach to treat petroleum contaminants, outperforming the other methods. For instance, after 30 min of the treatment using the conventional ozonation, the removal percentages of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene are 35, 58, 81, and 92, respectively; whereas the corresponding figures are 93.8, 83.5, 94.6, and 99.2 using the catalytic ozonation. © 2020 SECV