Preliminary study of the removal of acetaminophen from wastewater

Abstract

Acetaminophen (paracetamol) is a pharmaceutical drug for curing fever, headaches and body aches. The main areas that pollute the environment with acetaminophen and its residues come from hospitals, domestic and veterinary effluents and the pharmaceutical industries. Pharmaceutical drugs have appeared in our environment and entered as residues in rivers, sewage effluents, surface, soil and drinking water. The adsorption method is economically and technically favourable for wastewater treatment. This technique consists in the ability of the adsorbent material to absorb on its surface’s pollutants and its residues from wastewater from the environment. Fe3O4 nanomaterial has been used as an adsorbent due to its high pollutant removal efficiency, small particle size and maximum internal surface area. The specific surface area of the adsorbent material is important because the removal efficiency generally increases with increasing surface area.