Abstract
The review of literature related to the applications of statistic methods of design of experiments in chemical technology and environment protection was presented in the work. The research that consists of two stages: a stage of choosing the best variables describing an experimental object and a stage of proper experimental investigation, seems particularly interesting.
An interesting example of an application of statistical strategies in environmental protection is the optimization of photoactivity of TiO2/SiO2 mixture, received by a sol-gel technique. TiO2, due to its specific feature, was applied in the photocatalytic methods of removing toxic compounds from water and air. In the experiments there were used two designs - the fractional factorial design 25-1 (as the elimination one) and the central composite design (as the proper one). Following the data analysis from the elimination plan two variables were eliminated, which helped to simplify the research object.
Among other uncommon applications of the design of experiments: the optimization of the conditions for the extraction of natural pigments used in dyeing food, the production of fatty acid methyl esters used as diesel oil substitutes (biodiesel) and the optimization of a supercritical fluid extraction methodology for the analysis of castor oil, should be mentioned.