Insight into the characteristics, removal, and toxicity of effluent organic matter from a pharmaceutical wastewater treatment plant during catalytic ozonation

Abstract

Changes in the characteristics, removal efficiency, and toxicity of pharmaceutical effluent organic matter (EfOM) after catalytic ozonation were investigated in this study. After a 90-min treatment with a catalytic ozonation process (COP) in the presence of MnO2 ceramsite, the total organic carbon (TOC), UV254, colority, protein, and humic acid removal rates were 13.24%, 60.83%, 85.42%, 29.36% and 74.19%, respectively. The polysaccharide content increased by 12.73 mg/L during the COP for reaction times between 0 and ~50 min and decreased by 6.97 mg/L between 50 and ~90 min. Furthermore, 64.44% of the total colority was detected in the hydrophobic organic matter (HOM) fraction, and after the COP, and 88.69% of the colority in the HOM was eliminated. Meanwhile, only 59.18% of the colority in the hydrophilic organic matter (HIM) fraction was removed. GC-MS analysis showed that 38 organic pollutant species were completely removed, 8 were partially removed, and 7 were generated. After 90 min of COP treatment, the pharmaceutical EfOM toxicity was effectively reduced based on the higher incubation and lower mortality rates.

Decolorization and biodegradability of a real pharmaceutical wastewater treated by H2O2-assisted photoelectrocatalysis on TiO2 meshes

“…Among IWWs, effluents from pharmaceutical plants are considered a big source of environmental pollution (Zhan et al, 2019). In recent years much attention has been given to the degradation of pharmaceutical products (Asif et al, 2017;Zhao et al, 2019), but pharmaceutical WWs can present also a strong colorization (Wen et al, 2018). Many treatments for pharmaceuticals degradation have been developed, but only few of them have been tested for color removal and mostly on synthetic WWs.…”

Degradation of Thiol Collectors Using Ozone at a Low Dosage: Kinetics, Mineralization, Ozone Utilization, and Changes of Biodegradability and Water Quality Parameters

“…Liu et al [10] observed fast degradation of butyl xanthate at high O 3 dosage of 145.59 mg/(min•L), but the O 3 utilization was not concerned. As the reagent concentration in flotation pulps is usually 10 −3 -10 −4 mol/L [27], the pollutant concentration in flotation effluents is much lower than that of pharmaceutical effluents and petrochemical wastewaters [28,29]. In ozonation, a lower concentration of organics usually leads to a declined O 3 decomposition rate, resulting in lower ozone utilization.…”

Removal of Pharmaceutical Contaminants in Wastewater Using Nanomaterials: A Comprehensive Review

“…Also, there is a wide scope of surface-functionalization of nanomaterials which may increase their catalytic affinity towards target compounds, enhancing chemical and environmental stability and promoting reuse [43]. Currently, the most exploited nanomaterials for wastewater treatments include nanostructured carbon based catalysts i.e., carbon nanotubes, graphene, graphene oxide, nano-adsorbents, metal oxides nanoparticles, nano-assisted advanced oxidation processes, and nanofiltration membranes [30,[44][45][46][47]. Moreover, the contemporary technologies also tested the blend characteristics of more than one nanomaterial for exhibiting multifacet properties in the resulting nanocomposites.…”