Degradation of organic compounds from industrial pharmaceutical effluent through advanced oxidation processes

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental study focused on the degradation of an industrial pharmaceutical effluent through advanced oxidation processes. In the present study, two procedures (Fenton and photoFenton) were applied to the degradation of organic compounds from the pharmaceutical effluent; these are focused on the influence of the operational parameters on the efficiency of the oxidation of the organic compounds from the effluent and determining the optimal operating conditions in view to obtain a greater process performance. The degradation process was studied by monitoring the changes in the organic substrate concentration using chemical oxygen demand (COD), total organic carbon (TOC) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analyses. The results suggest that the techniques applied could be used to remove organic compounds from industrial pharmaceutical effluent.