merged

Effects of Temperature on Solar Photocatalytic Efficiency of Zinc Oxide for
Water Decontamination
Farah Eilyana Mohamed
Supervisor: Dr. Wan Rafizah binti Wan Abdullah
Bachelor of Technology (Environment)
School of Ocean Engineering
Universiti Malaysia Terengganu
Water pollution is a severe worldwide problem and it gives negative impacts on the
sustainability of water resources. The efficiency of green technology like solar driven
water purification is expected to improve by combination of renewable solar thermal
energy and oxidation process via solar photocatalytic effect. However, very few studies
investigate the effect of temperature on solar photocatalytic efficiency. This study
evaluated the efficiency of ZnO mediated and solar driven photocatalytic process in
removing model organic contaminant and disinfecting model bacteria at high
temperature (30 – 50 o C). The findings revealed that elevation of photocatalysis
temperature up to 50 o C by solar thermal collector promoted the inactivation of
99.99% E.coli and 98% removal of 10 mg/L methylene blue in less than 6 hours under
full sunlight condition. This observation proves that solar photocatalysis is indeed a
promising alternative for low cost and reliable water decontamination.
26 | U M T U N D E R G R A D U A T E R E S E A R C H D A Y 2019