A sustainable solution for removal of glutaraldehyde in saline water with visible light photocatalysis

Glutaraldehyde (GA) is the most common biocide used in unconventional oil and gas production. Photocatalytic degradation of GA in brine simulating oil and gas produced water using Ag/AgCl/BiOCl composite as a photocatalyst with visible light was investigated. Removal of GA at 0.1 mM in 200 g/L NaCl solution at pH 7 was 90% after 75 min irradiation using 5 g/L of the photocatalyst. The GA removal followed pseudo-first order reaction with a rate constant of 0.0303 min⁻¹. At pH 5 or at 300 g/L NaCl, the photocatalytic removal of GA was almost completely inhibited. Similar inhibitions were observed when adding dissolved organic carbon (from humic acid) at 10 and 200 mg/L, or Br⁻ at 120 mg/L to the system. The removal rate of GA markedly increased with increasing pH (5–9), photocatalyst loading (2–8 g/L) and under 350 nm UV (compared to visible light). On the contrary, the removal rate of GA markedly decreased with increasing NaCl and initial GA concentrations (0–300 g/L for NaCl and 0.1–0.4 mM for GA). A quenching experiment was also conducted; electron holes (h⁺) and superoxide () were found as the main reactive species responsible for the removal of GA while OH had a very limited effect.