(2023) Environmental Pollution_Construction and demolition waste as a high-efficiency advanced process for organic pollutant degradation in Fenton-like reaction to approach circular economy☆

Kuan-Ting Lee a,b, Kuan-Yu Ho a, Wei-Hsin Chen a,c,d,*, Eilhann E. Kwon e, Kun-Yi Andrew Lin f,g,
Shuenn-Ren Liou h

(Elsevier Ltd) International Journal of Environmental Pollution ISSN:  Article No. DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122246

The Fenton-like reaction is a promising organic wastewater treatment reaction among advanced oxidation
processes (AOP), which has emerged to replace the conventional Fenton reaction. Recycled construction and
demolition waste (CDW), which is porous and rich in iron, manganese, and magnesium, can be reused as a
Fenton-like catalyst. This study proposes an AOP wastewater treatment strategy using recycled porous CDW
mixed with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to decompose methylene blue (MB) wastewater. According to the
apparent first-order rate (Kapp) of 10 ppm MB adsorption, CDW-3, having the highest specific surface area, also
has the highest Kapp of 0.23 min- 1 g- 1. The optimized conditions recommended by the Taguchi method include a
0.3 g mL- 1 CDW-3 concentration, a 0.254 g mL- 1 H2O2 concentration, and 10 ppm MB, resulting in an about
2.01 min- 1 Kapp value. In addition, MB concentration is observed as the most influential factor for Kapp, which
decreases with increasing MB concentration and is about 0.62 min- 1 at 1000 ppm MB. Repeating the Fenton-like
reaction five times at 100 p.m. MB using the same CDW-3, the Kapp is about 0.64 min- 1, which is 86% of the
initial run. The synergistic effect index (ξ) is defined to quantify the level of interaction between CDW and H2O2,
which produces free radicals during the Fenton-like process. The ξ of CDW-3 is about 2.16. Overall, it is
demonstrated that CDW is a promising catalyst for Fenton-like reactions, and the synergistic effect index (ξ) can
be used as a reference index to evaluate the catalytic generation of free radicals between the catalyst and H2O2.

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of the National Science and Technology Council, Taiwan, R.O.C., under the grant numbers NSTC 112-2218-E-006-025- and NSTC 112-2218-E-002-052- for this research. This research was also supported in part by Higher
Education Sprout Project, Ministry of Education to the Headquarters of University Advancement at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU).
The authors gratefully acknowledge the use of EM000700 and XRD005101 of NSTC 112-2740-M-006-001 and MOST 111-2731-M-006-001 belonging to the Core Facility Center of National Cheng Kung University.