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Photocatalytic Treatment of Pharmaceuticals in Water using Immobilized TiO2 and UV-A Irradiation

The pharmaceuticals are of particular concern due to their ubiquity in the aquatic environment and their health effects. Since primary and secondary wastewater treatment (WWT) technologies are not specifically designed to remove some of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) and their metabolites, pharmaceuticals are detected in different environmental matrices worldwide ; in WWT plant effluents, surface, ground and drinking waters. The study was aimed at investigating the applicability of photocatalytic treatment of simulated wastewater containing diclofenac (DCF), a common non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug and one of the most widely available drugs in the world that showed adverse effects in different organisms even at very low concentrations. In that purpose, UV-A/TiO2/H2O2 process using supported photocatalyst in a form of TiO2 immobilized thin films. The morphology and thickness of immobilized catalyst was examined using SEM analysis. The influence of key operating parameters of applied photocatalytic treatment, such as initial pH, catalyst dosage in terms of number of thin film layers, and oxidant concentration, was investigated using the combination of full factorial experimental design with response surface modeling. The process effectiveness was assessed on the basis of DCF removal and conversion. The environmental aspects of the applied system were evaluated on the basis of mineralization kinetics, changes in biodegradability and toxicity. The catalyst regeneration effectiveness using chemical and thermal methods was compared, while the stability of catalyst thin films was examined through consecutive runs.

pharmaceuticals; photocatalytic treatment; TiO2 immobilized films; environmental aspects

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