Pharmaceuticals treatment by Advanced Oxidation Processes: BLB-UV

Abstract

Over the last few years the increasing appearance in wastewater of a variety of organic compounds known as emerging pollutants has been revealed. They are organic compounds with high molecular weight and highly persistent and toxic such as pharmaceutical compounds, personal care products, industrial surfactants or additives. Urban and industrial wastewaters, which contain emerging pollutants in concentrations of μg/L or ng/L, are treated in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). However, these processes typically include biological treatments not able to completely degrade molecules of these pollutants due to their highly complex structure and stability. In recent decades there have been major advances in techniques able to remove such contaminants or increase the biodegradability of samples containing them to subsequently apply biological treatments. Among these techniques are the Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs), which are based on the formation of oxidizing species, such as hydroxyl radicals, capable of oxidizing pollutant molecules. In this work it has been studied the degradation of the pharmaceutical compound Tiapride, an antipsychotic used to treat mental illnesses. The techniques studied has been Photolysis, UV/H2O2, UV/Fe2+, Fenton, Photo-Fenton and Heterogeneous Photocatalysis in a reactor with BLB lamps. Degradation and mineralization of the compound, BOD5, COD, SUVA, toxicity and biodegradability of the solutions of Tiapride have been monitored during the different processes. Among the Advanced Oxidation Processes studied, Photo-Fenton has been the one that achieved best results. It was obtained 99% of Tiapride degradation and 67% of mineralization using concentrations of Fe2+ and H2O2 of 10 mg/L and 150 mg/L, respectively