Paper mill wastewater detoxification by solar photocatalysis

In the WATER project the German Aerospace Center, and the Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, analyse the possibilities of treating paper mill effluents by solar photocatalysis for the paper mill of the Brazilian paper producer Votorantim Celulose e Papel, VCP, at Luiz Antônio, SP, Brazil. The degradation of the bio-polymer lignin is a vast problem in paper production. The tests have shown that treatment by the photocatalyst TiO2 and solar radiation is an ecological future oriented approach to solve this problem. The treatment of lignin containing process water by solar photocatalysis was optimised and the economics for solar treatment plants of different sizes was estimated to check the possibilities for implementing the technology in industrial processes.