Remoción de la carga contaminante de un agua sintética que simula efluentes líquidos del proceso de flotación de oro : Determinación de las mejores condiciones para la remoción de la carga contaminante de un agua sintética que simula efluentes líquidos del proceso de flotación de oro mediante un proceso fotocatalítico con radiación UV y peróxido de hidrógeno.

Abstract

Contamination problems associated with organic contaminants, which are being released into the environment through wastewater from gold separation, are permanently observed. One of the most important contaminants are compounds called xanthates, which show a high toxicity to biota, therefore, appropriate alternatives of liquid effluent treatments are required to avoid environmental damage. The objective of this study was to remove the pollutant load from synthetic water that simulates the liquid effluents of the gold flotation process, by means of photocatalysis with UV radiation and hydrogen peroxide, for which two UV-C irradiation systems were designed and built. System 1 has four levels of height, separated by three centimeters between each level, to allow experiments with different irradiances, while system 2 has the radiation source fixed at the top. Four experiments were performed: a sodium isopropyl xanthate solution combined with the application of UV-C light, photocatalysis, addition of H2O2 solution [439 mg L-1] and a hybrid treatment. The photocatalysis allowed a better removal of the contaminant (98%), while the addition of hydrogen peroxide [439 mg L-1] recorded the lowest percentage of degradation of sodium isopropyl xanthate concentration (49%). The hybrid experiment showed that it is not necessary to keep the lamp on for the whole treatment time, since the UV-C radiation would act as a "boost" to facilitate the degradation promoted by the hydrogen peroxide.