Anomalies in industrial wastewater quality data in Kuwait.

Data was collected on the quality and quantity of wastewater discharged from different petroleum and nonpetroleum industrial sources in Kuwait over a period of one year. A field survey included 75 factories distributed in three industrial areas (Sabhan, Kuwait City, and Shuaiba). Among the industries contacted only 41 agreed to participate in field measurements and wastewater sampling campaign. The questionnaire feedback obtained indicated that the activities of these industries can be categorized into 20 categories including 4 and 37 petroleum and nonpetroleum industries, respectively. The mean quality of wastewater generated in Sabhan industrial area were found to be higher than those of Kuwait City and Shuaiba areas. The inorganic results indicated that high values of total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TDS), sulfide, free chlorine, and fluoride were observed in the wastewater of petroleum factories of Shuaiba, while high values of total phosphate, ammonia, total Kjeldahl nitrogen, total nitrogen, and floatables were observed in the wastewater of nonpetroleum factories of Kuwait City. Additionally, organic results indicated that high values of chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), oil and grease, and total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) were observed in the wastewater of petroleum factories of Shuaiba area. GIS maps were generated for 25 wastewater parameters for the participating 41 factories using ArcView GIS software.

Mesoporous WO3-graphene photocatalyst for photocatalytic degradation of Methylene Blue dye under visible light illumination.

Advanced oxidation technologies are a friendly environmental approach for the remediation of industrial wastewaters. Here, one pot synthesis of mesoporous WO3 and WO3-graphene oxide (GO) nanocomposites has been performed through the sol-gel method. Then, platinum (Pt) nanoparticles were deposited onto the WO3 and WO3-GO nanocomposite through photochemical reduction to produce mesoporous Pt/WO3 and Pt/WO3-GO nanocomposites. X-ray diffraction (XRD) findings exhibit a formation of monoclinic and triclinic WO3 phases. Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) images of Pt/WO3-GO nanocomposites exhibited that WO3 nanoparticles are obviously agglomerated and the particle sizes of Pt and WO3 are ~10nm and 20-50nm, respectively. The mesoporous Pt/WO3 and Pt/WO3-GO nanocomposites were assessed for photocatalytic degradation of Methylene Blue (MB) as a probe molecule under visible light illumination. The findings showed that mesoporous Pt/WO3, WO3-GO and Pt/WO3-GO nanocomposites exhibited much higher photocatalytic efficiencies than the pure WO3. The photodegradation rates by mesoporous Pt/WO3-GO nanocomposites are 3, 2 and 1.15 times greater than those by mesoporous WO3, WO3-GO, and Pt/WO3, respectively. The key factors of the enhanced photocatalytic performance of Pt/WO3-GO nanocomposites could be explained by the highly freedom electron transfer through the synergetic effect between WO3 and GO sheets, in addition to the Pt nanoparticles that act as active sites for O2 reduction, which suppresses the electron hole pair recombination in the Pt/WO3-GO nanocomposites.