The potential use of solar photocatalytic oxidation for removal of emerging pharmaceuticals from effluent of wastewater treatment plant: A pilot plant study

Abstract

The treatment of effluent wastewater containing pharmaceutical by solar advanced oxidation processes were studied in a pilot plant. The removal efficiency of four groups of pharmaceuticals (antibiotics, estrogens, acidic, and neutral), commonly detected as emerging contaminants, were tested by different solar-driven photochemical processes including solar-photolysis, solar-photocatalytic oxidation using Fe(III) or TiO2 and solar based photo-Fenton reaction. Results showed that Solar-photolysis is not effective for the complete removal of the selected contaminants, on other hand solar-photocatalytic oxidation using TiO2, solar based photo-Fenton reaction showed significant removal efficiencies and high mineralization. Solar photo-catalytic systems produced a final solution with lower toxicity if compared with original solution.