Abstract
This study aimed to investigate the degradation kinetics of the total organic carbon (TOC) in real pharmaceutical wastewater. Because of the complexity of real wastewaters and the lack of knowledge on all reactions involved in their chemical degradation, the use of a kinetic approach becomes difficult. To overcome this difficulty, we adopted a kinetic model based on chemical equations validated for mechanisms of free radical generation. Photo-Fenton reactions were performed in a 1-L tubular reactor. The developed model satisfactorily described the degradation kinetics of TOC in wastewater, with an R2 of 0.9997. The TOC degradation rate constant (kd) was estimated at 1 × 1011 L2 mol2 s−1, in agreement with literature values for the degradation kinetics of organic compounds. UV radiation had a positive effect on degradation, contributing to HO• formation. The adopted mathematical approach was highly sensitive to the formation rate constant of HO• from H2O2 (k4). By assuming the reaction to follow variable order kinetics (β = 1 and β = 2), it was possible to improve the goodness of fit of the model. Our results suggest, albeit in an incipient way, that the approach used in this study can be extended to the kinetic understanding of other complex wastewaters.
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Funding
This work was supported by FAPESP (São Paulo Research Foundation, Brazil) (Process 2009/1765-2; 2013/02762-5 and 2014/21364-3), by CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) (Process 408742/2018-6), and by CAPES (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel, Brazil).
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Hélcio José Izário Filho, Leandro Gonçalves Aguiar, and Joaquim Joffre Brandão. The statistical analysis and optimization were performed by Adriano Francisco Siqueira and Leandro Gonçalves Aguiar. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Leandro Gonçalves Aguiar. All the authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Molar balance equations used in the model
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Izário Filho, H.J., Aguiar, L.G., Siqueira, A.F. et al. Degradation of Organic Carbon in Pharmaceutical Wastewater: a Kinetic Approach. Water Air Soil Pollut 232, 85 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-021-05039-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-021-05039-w