The presence of recalcitrant organic molecules with high amounts of chemical oxygen demand, low biodegradability, and lack of effective treatment for pharmaceutical wastewater result in environmental pollution. Batch wet peroxide oxidation (WPO) experiments have been performed to study the effect of temperature (150 C-250 C), oxidant coefficient (OC 0-3), and reaction time ( 20minutes-60 minutes) on degradation efficiency of industrial pharmaceutical wastewater. Box-Behnken design (BBD) with response surface methodology was used to study the effect of independent parameters on total organic carbon (TOC) removal response. The optimum temperature, oxidant coefficient, and reaction time of the process were found to be 250 C, OC 3, and 60 minutes, which resulted in TOC conversion of 57.96%. The obtained quadratic model has been able to predict the response with minimum deviation. The experimental modelling results conveyed that influence of process parameters followed the order: temperature > time > oxidant coefficient. To improve the mineralization efficiency, process parameters were changed to attain the near complete conversion ($99%) of the pharmaceutical wastewater. The qualitative analysis also showed that only a few components of pharmaceuticals were present in the treated effluent.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.