Decolorization and decomposition of organic pollutants for reactive and disperse dyes using electron beam technology: effect of the concentrations of pollutants and irradiation dose

Dyeing wastewater was known to have strong color and refractory organic pollutants. In this study irradiation alone was used for dyes wastewater treatment. This paper studies the effect of the concentrations of pollutants to its removal at various dosages using electron beam technology. Irradiation was effective in removing the highly colored and refractory organic compounds. The color removal for initial concentrations of 255 CU, 520 CU, 990 CU and 1900 CU treated using irradiation at 0.5 kGy were 61%, 48%, 28% and 16%, respectively. However, at the dose of 108 kGy and higher, the color removal between 87% and 96% were recorded with no apparent trend. COD removal also reported similar trend but at relatively lower removal percentage. The COD removal at 0.5 kGy for initial COD concentrations of 57 mg/l and 515 mg/l were 10% and 0%, respectively. At irradiation dose of 108 kGy, the removal for initial COD concentrations of 57 mg/l and 515 mg/l were 37% and 13%, respectively. This showed that concentrations of pollutants and dose of irradiation applied to remove color and COD were dependent to each other.