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Pilot-scale treatment of pharmaceutical berberine wastewater by Fenton oxidation

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Abstract

Fenton oxidation was used to treat the berberine finished mother liquor wastewater in pilot scale. To evaluate berberine and COD removal efficiency, the main factors, including pH, H2O2 dosage, Fe2+/H2O2 mass ratio and the water flow (Q), were optimized using response surface methodology (RSM). The results showed that under the optimal conditions, pH 3, H2O2/COD molar ratio of 1.25, Fe2+/H2O2 molar ratio of 0.1, Q 100 L/h [with hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 2.5 h], the COD and berberine removal efficiencies were 35.6 and 91.4 % at initial COD concentration of 4061 mg/L and berberine concentration of 709 mg/L, respectively. The (BOD5)/(COD) ratio (B/C) of the wastewater increased from 0 to 0.3, indicating significantly improved biodegradability of wastewater.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by The National Major Scientific and Technological Projects for Water Pollution Control and Management (2012ZX07202-002), EU-China Environmental Sustainability Programme (No. DCI-ASIE/2013/323-261) and State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Microorganism Application and Risk Control (No. MARC 2012D008).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China

    Xiaoyu Cui, Ping Zeng, Yonghui Song, Xiaolin Xie & Lu Han

  2. Department of Urban Water Environmental Research, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China

    Xiaoyu Cui, Ping Zeng, Yonghui Song, Xiaolin Xie & Lu Han

  3. State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Microorganism Application and Risk Control (MARC), Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Ping Zeng

  4. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 119077, Singapore

    Guanglei Qiu

  5. Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK

    Yongqiang Liu

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  1. Xiaoyu Cui
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Correspondence to Ping Zeng or Yonghui Song.

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Yonghui Song and Ping Zeng are the first and second corresponding authors, respectively.

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Cui, X., Zeng, P., Qiu, G. et al. Pilot-scale treatment of pharmaceutical berberine wastewater by Fenton oxidation. Environ Earth Sci 73, 4967–4977 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-015-4342-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-015-4342-6

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