Application of Soluble Bio-Organic Substances (Sbo) in Photochemical Processes for the Degradation of Sulfadiazine Contaminating Water

Abstract

Soluble bio-organic substances (SBO) obtained from urban bio-wastes have been investigated as chemical auxiliaries in photochemical processes. For this purpose, photodegradation of the antibiotic sulfadiazine (SDZ) (25 mg L-1) was studied under simulated sunlight. Experiments were performed to check the role of the SBO as additives for the photo-Fenton process ([SBO] 0 = 20 mg L-1 , [H 2 O 2 ] 0 = 244 mg L-1 , [Fe 3+ ] 0 = 5 mg L-1) at pH 3, 5.2 and 7. The results show that in slightly acidic conditions (pH = 5.2) the SBO improve the photo-Fenton process. Organic compounds present in the SBO are able to complex iron cations and hence, iron precipitation could be avoided. Finally, the results of a Doehlert uniform array design were used to fit a neural network model, which was found to be an effective, simple approach to successfully modeling the photo-Fenton degradation using SBO within the range of experimental conditions. This model might be useful in process optimization.