Removal of pharmaceuticals from wastewater by electrochemical oxidation using cylindrical flow reactor and optimization of treatment conditions

Abstract

This paper examines the use of electrooxidation for treatment of wastewater obtained from a pharmaceutical industry. The wastewater primarily contained Gentamicin and Dexamethasone. With NaCl as supporting electrolyte, the effluent was treated in a cylindrical flow reactor in continuous (single pass) mode under various current densities (2-5 A/dm2) and flow rates (10-40 L/h). By cyclic voltammetric (CV) analysis, the optimum condition for maximum redox reaction was determined. The efficiency of chemical oxygen demand (COD) reduction and power consumption were studied for different operating conditions. From the results it was observed that maximum COD reduction of about 85.56% was obtained at a flow rate of 10 L/h with an applied current density of 4 A/dm2. FT-IR spectra studies showed that during electrooxidation, the intensities of characteristic functional groups such as N-H, O-H were reduced and some new peaks also started to appear. Probable theory, reaction mechanism and modeling were proposed for the oxidation of pharmaceutical effluent. The experimental results demonstrated that electrooxidation treatment was very effective and capable of elevating the quality of treated wastewater to the reuse standard prescribed for pharmaceutical industries.

Microwave‐Assisted Solvothermal One‐Pot Synthesis of RuO2 Nanoparticles: First Insights of Its Activity Towards Oxygen and Chlorine Evolution Reactions

“…The search of technological alternatives to treat wastewaters has made RuO 2 anodes an attractive solution to degrade organic pollutants via anodic oxidation . Electrochemical combustion of recalcitrant pollutants as p‐nitrophenol, tricyclazole, dyes and pharmaceutical compounds have been widely studied using this anode material. In this direction, the synthesis method is a crucial factor in the microstructure and catalytic behavior of this oxide catalyst, to mitigate costs and overcoming practical challenges to consolidate industrial applications.…”

Insight into the characteristics, removal, and toxicity of effluent organic matter from a pharmaceutical wastewater treatment plant during catalytic ozonation

“…Furthermore, -OH is derived from the carboxyl, phenol and alcohol groups in the samples, and the presence of -OH and -NH 2 contributes to the formation of colority. The peak at 2928 cm −1 and a low intense peak at 1440 cm −1 reflected C-H stretching of the cyclic ring 37 , 38 . These two peaks disappearing after COP possibly reflected pollutants containing cyclic ring, like 1,4-Dioxane and 1-Cyclohexene-1-carboxylic acid,4-(1,5-dimethyl-3-oxohexyl)-, methyl ester-, [R-(R*,R*)], had been degraded.…”

Removal of the drug procaine from acidic aqueous solutions using a flow reactor with a boron-doped diamond anode

“…Over the last decade, powerful electrochemical AOPs (EAOPs) are being developed for the remediation of pharmaceuticals wastewater [12][13][14][15][16]. Among them, Fenton-based treatments with H2O2 electrogeneration seem the most promising EAOPs for industrial implementation [12][13][14][15]. In these processes, Fe 2+ is added to the solution to react with H2O2 produced at the cathode of the electrochemical cell, eventually forming homogeneous • OH via the well-known Fenton's reaction.…”