Treatment of a Pharmaceutical Industrial Effluent by a Hybrid Process of Advanced Oxidation and Adsorption

Abstract

In the present study, a combined approach of ozone-based advanced oxidation and adsorption by activated char was employed for the treatment of a pharmaceutical industrial effluent. Ozone is a selective oxidant, but the addition of H 2 O 2 generated in situ hydroxyl radicals, which is a non-selective stronger oxidant than ozone. The effluent obtained from the pharmaceutical industry mainly contained anti-cancer drugs, anti-psychotic drugs, and some pain killers. The peroxone process had 75–88.5% chemical oxygen demand (COD) reduction efficiency at pH 5–11 in 3 h. Adsorption by activated char further reduced the COD to 85.4–92.7% for pH 5–11 in 2.5 h. All other water quality parameters were significantly decreased (>73% removal) during ozonation. The primary operational parameters (system pH and H 2 O 2 concentration) were also varied, and their effects were analyzed. The pseudo-first-order rate constants for ozonation were calculated, and they were found to be in the range of 1.42 × 10 –4 to 3.35 × 10 –4 s –1 for pH 5–11. The kinetic parameters for adsorption were calculated for the pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order, and Elovich models. The fit of the pseudo-first-order kinetic model to the experimental data was the best.

Key Points of Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) for Wastewater, Organic Pollutants and Pharmaceutical Waste Treatment: A Mini Review

“…A COD reduction was achieved, reaching 88% in a pH range of 4~6. A custom-made assembly with a glass reactor supported by ozone and oxygen generator systems with controllable flows was used for the experiments, with 200 mL of wastewater in each batch run [75]. Finally, lake water and wastewater samples were treated with ozone/hydrogen peroxide AOPs, in a batch reactor of 500 mL at pH = 8, resulting in the increased transformation of atrazine (ATR), sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and N-nitroso-dimethylamine (NDMA), whilst keeping the bromate formation at a percentage of 70% [31].…”

Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) as Formidable Candidate for Pharmaceutical Wastewater Treatment

“…AOPs are frequently combined with other methods, for instance adsorption, biodegradation, membrane technique, and electro-coagulation to beat the greater price. AOPs have been utilized in the pretreatment phase to enhance the biodegradability and reduce the price in the improved combination for excessively polluted pharmaceutical wastewaters [59]. Furthermore, hybrid-AOPs serve as greatly effectual and influential management for whole antibiotics demineralization.…”

“…The effluent comprised of antipsychotic, anti-cancer, anti-biotic, and anti-depressant drugs. Later, the beforehand treated wastewater was transported via a chamber of grained activated carbon (GAC) for additional lessening of the COD [59].…”

Regeneration of dye-saturated activated carbon through advanced oxidative processes: A review

“…Advanced oxidative processes (AOP), which include a combination of these technologies, have also been investigated. These processes are based predominantly (but not exclusively) on the in-situ generation of hydroxyl radicals ( • OH), have proven efficiency (>90%) in the treatment of organic pollutants [ 30 ], are able to remove a wide range of organic pollutants [ 31 ], and convert the contaminants into biodegradable or inert substances, such as carbon dioxide, water and inorganic salts [ 32 ].…”