Photodegradation of Real Pharmaceutical Wastewater with Titanium Dioxide, Zinc Oxide, and Hydrogen Peroxide During UV Treatment (original) (raw)

2016, IOSR Journal of Engineering

This paper presents the photocatalytic degradation of real pharmaceutical wastewater from Abbot Laboratories (Private) Limited, Karachi, Pakistan, using TiO 2 , ZnO, and H 2 O 2. The pretreated sample wastewater was used for degradation experiments and tests were carried out at 38 0 C under pH of 9 and 4 in a stirrer bath reactor equipped with eight ultraviolet tubes. The use of this technique is common in removal of the organic, inorganic pollutants and pathogens. Optimal conditions were selected from reported results of the researchers on advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) for removal of residual pharmaceuticals from real pharmaceutical wastewater. The three catalysts (Titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, and TiO 2 / H 2 O 2) used in this study are effective catalysts in photocatalytic degradation of real pharmaceutical wastewater. The maximum degradation achieved was 45.11% by combined use of TiO 2 and H 2 O 2 at 38 0 C and pH. The degradation improved at higher pH with Zinc oxide and Titanium oxide. The results indicate that for real pharmaceutical wastewater, combined use of TiO 2 / H 2 O 2 is comparatively more effective than ZnO and TiO 2 alone. The degradation of the pharmaceutical wastewater followed pseudo-first-order kinetics. The reaction rate constant was 0.00148/min for TiO 2 / H 2 O 2. This study demonstrates that for real pharmaceutical wastewater reacts differently to catalyst than synthetic pharmaceutical wastewater, or formulated wastewater.