Photocatalytic Hydrogen Energy Evolution from Sugar Beet Wastewater

• Published in: ChemistrySelect (Weinheim) Vol. 6; no. 43; pp. 12266 - 12275
• Main Authors: Orak, Ceren, Yüksel, Asli
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 22-11-2021
• Subjects: graphene; hydrogen; LaFeO3; photocatalysis; sugar beet wastewater
• ISSN: 2365-6549; 2365-6549
• DOI: 10.1002/slct.202103342

Hydrogen is a clean, environmentally friendly, storable, and sustainable green energy source as well as a potential fuel. It could be produced from various biomass, wastewater, or other sources by different processes. In this study, hydrogen was evolved from sucrose model solution and real sugar beet wastewater by photocatalytic oxidation using a perovskite catalyst under solar light irradiation. In this context, firstly, the graphene supported LaFeO3 (GLFO) was synthesized and then, a characterization study shows that GLFO is successfully synthesized. To optimize the reaction parameters (pH, catalyst loading, and initial hydrogen peroxide concentration), an experimental matrix was created using the Box Behnken model. Whereas the highest hydrogen evolution from sucrose model solution was observed as 3520 μmol/gcat, the highest hydrogen evolution from sugar beet wastewater was obtained as 7035 μmol/gcat. The highest TOC removal (99.73 %) from sugar beet wastewater was also achieved at the same reaction conditions.
Hydrogen was produced from sucrose model solution and real sugar beet wastewater in the presence of GLFO via photocatalysis. A characterization study was performed to confirm that GLFO was successfully synthesized. The obtained highest amount of hydrogen from the sucrose model solution was 3520 μmol/gcat whereas it was 7035 μmol/gcat from real sugar beet wastewater. Based on kinetic study, the activation energy of the observed reaction for hydrogen production from real sugar beet wastewater was higher than sucrose model solution.