The Degradation of Furfural from Petroleum Refinery Wastewater Employing a Packed Bubble Column Reactor Using O3 and a CuO Nanocatalyst

Furfural is one of the main pollutant materials in petroleum refinery wastewater. This work used an ozonized bubble column reactor to remove furfural from wastewater. The reactor applied two shapes of packing materials and two dosages of CuO nanocatalyst (0.05 and 0.1 ppm) to enhance the degradation process. The results indicated that adding 0.1 ppm of nanocatalyst provided an efficient rate of furfural degradation compared to that of 0.05 ppm. Also, the packing materials enhanced the furfural degradation significantly. As a result, the contact area between the gas and liquid phases increased, and a high furfural removal efficiency was achieved. It was found that the CuO nanocatalyst generated more (OH•) radicals. At a treatment time of 120 min and an ozone flow of 40 L/h, the furfural degradation recorded values of 80.66 and 78.6% at 10 and 20 ppm of initial concentration, respectively. At 60 ppm, the degradation efficiency did not exceed 74.16%. Furthermore, the kinetic study indicated that the first-order mechanism is more favorable than the second-order mechanism, representing the furfural degradation with a correlation factor of 0.9837. Finally, the furfural reaction can be achieved successfully in a shorter time and at low cost.