Premium
Pharmaceutical wastewater treatment using granular activated carbon and UV/H 2 O 2 processes: Experimental analysis and modelling
Author(s) -
Ghafoori Samira,
Shah Kiran K.,
Mehrvar Mehrab,
Chan Philip K.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the canadian journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.404
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1939-019X
pISSN - 0008-4034
DOI - 10.1002/cjce.21981
Subject(s) - adsorption , activated carbon , chemistry , desorption , wastewater , total organic carbon , langmuir adsorption model , carbon fibers , chemical oxygen demand , chromatography , langmuir , pulp and paper industry , nuclear chemistry , environmental chemistry , environmental engineering , organic chemistry , materials science , environmental science , composite number , engineering , composite material
The treatment of a synthetic pharmaceutical wastewater was studied using granular activated carbon (GAC) adsorption, UV/H 2 O 2 process, and their combination. Experimental results reveal that GAC adsorption alone has 79% efficiency in total organic carbon (TOC) removal in 10 min breakthrough time with the dosage of 333.33 mg activated carbon/L. The adsorption data are fitted well with the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. The UV/H 2 O 2 process alone at 6 h hydraulic retention time with optimum dosage of 4.25 mgH 2 O 2 /mgCOD shows 29 and 26% TOC reduction using 185 and 254 nm UV lamps, respectively. The kinetic modelling of the UV 254 /H 2 O 2 process is developed using chemical oxygen demand (COD) and TOC as lumped parameters. A good agreement between model predictions and experimental data is confirmed. In combined processes, pre‐treated pharmaceutical wastewater by UV 254 /H 2 O 2 followed by GAC adsorption process along with the desorption of contaminants from GAC and the subsequent treatment of the condensed steam by UV 254 /H 2 O 2 process leads to 82 % TOC removal efficiency. On the other hand, the GAC adsorption along with UV 254 /H 2 O 2 treatment of regenerant (condensed steam) from the desorption process leads to 88 % TOC removal at optimum conditions.