Treatment of Pharmaceutical Effluent by Sono‐Fenton‐Sorption

Abstract

This study presents the treatment of a high strength pharmaceutical wastewater by sono‐Fenton‐sorption (SFS). Better results were observed with SFS compared to individual processes and the maximum chemical oxygen demand reduction observed after 180 min of treatment with SFS, sono‐Fenton, and sono‐sorption was 71.9, 48.4, and 43.75%, respectively. The effect of parameters such as initial concentration, dosage of Fenton's reagent, sorbent dosage, and pattern of addition of iron on the performance of SFS was analyzed. The sonosorption and SFS were found to fit well with Langmuir–Hinshelwood kinetics. Fourier transformed IR studies of effluent and sorbent before and after treatment confirmed the oxidative degradation of pharmaceutical effluent. Toxicity of the effluent was considerably reduced after the treatment and the electrical energy consumption was significantly reduced, when sonolysis was coupled with sorption and Fenton's process (SFS).

Enhanced catalytic degradation of amoxicillin with TiO2–Fe3O4 composites via a submerged magnetic separation membrane photocatalytic reactor (SMSMPR)

“…[1][2][3] Several effective alternative water treatment technologies have been considered in recent studies, including adsorption, 4,5 membrane ltration, 6-8 coagulation 9 and advanced oxidation technologies. [10][11][12] Photocatalytic environmental remediation has always been the research focus since the breakthrough of water splitting was covered by Fujishima and Honda in 1972. 13,14 Various photocatalysts have been used in the photocatalysis process, among which titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) is the most widely studied and applied owing to its advantages of strong oxidizing ability, chemical stability, nontoxicity, low cost and high hydrophilicity.…”