Open AccessDEGRADATION OF PARACETAMOL IN AQUEOUS SOLUTION: COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT UV INDUCED ADVANCED OXIDATION PROCESSES
Author(s) -
K. GONZÁLEZ-LABRADA,
I. QUESADA-PEÑATE,
F. VELICHKOVA,
C. JULCOUR-LEBIGUE,
C. ANDRIANTSIFERANA,
M. H MANÉRO,
C. ALBASI,
U. J. JÁUREGUI-HAZA
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
latin american applied research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.123
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1851-8796
pISSN - 0327-0793
DOI - 10.52292/j.laar.2016.341
Subject(s) - hydrogen peroxide , effluent , mineralization (soil science) , photocatalysis , aqueous solution , degradation (telecommunications) , environmental chemistry , wastewater , chemistry , pollutant , pesticide degradation , photodissociation , oxidation process , environmental science , pesticide , catalysis , photochemistry , chemical engineering , environmental engineering , organic chemistry , computer science , telecommunications , nitrogen , agronomy , biology , engineering
Environmental hazards are a consequence of the massive use of synthetic chemicals that are prevalent in nearly every aspect of modern life. The outburst of the so-called “emerging pollutants” (pharmaceuticals and pesticides among others) generates an additional problem due to the scarce available information on their impact on the environment or their interferences with the biological processes. Among them, paracetamol is one of the drugs the most widely found in hospital effluents, in the effluents of wastewater treatment plants, as well as in rivers. In this work, the feasibility of paracetamol degradation by different processes based on ultraviolet radiation is discussed: photolysis, photo-oxidation with hydrogen peroxide, photo-Fenton reaction, and heterogeneous photocatalysis with TiO2 are evaluated. The best results are obtained with the photoFenton process, for which more than 99% of the pharmaceutical is degraded within 5 minutes. At best experimental conditions the mineralization was superior to 75% after one hour of reaction.