Degradation of Paracetamol and Norfloxacin in Aqueous Solution Using Vacuum Ultraviolet (VUV) Process

Abstract

Abstract-The removal of pharmaceutical and personal care products (paracetamol and norfloxacin) in water by vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) process was studied. The effects of initial pharmaceutical concentrations (1, 5 and 10 mg/L), initial pHs (5, 7 and 9), VUV powers (30, 60 and 120 W) and bicarbonate concentrations (100 and 200 mg/L as CaCO 3 ) were investigated. The experiments under ultraviolet (UV) condition were performed for comparative purpose. The results showed that the VUV process exhibited superior degradation performance than that by the UV process. The rates of both paracetamol and norfloxacin removals were second order reaction. Higher concentrations resulted in the decrease of pharmaceutical degradation rate. The initial pH had slight impact on pharmaceutical removal efficiency and the neutral pH showed the highest degradation efficiency. Bicarbonate obviously decreased the pharmaceutical removal .This is due to from OH • scavenging and the VUV light absorption of the bicarbonate. For the effect of VUV powers, removal efficiencies increased as the increase of VUV powers.