Process optimization for the treatment of pharmaceutical wastewater catalyzed by poly sulpha sponge

• Published in: Journal of the Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers 2014-07, Vol.45 (4), p.1739-1747
• Main Authors: Karthikeyan, Sekar, Anil Kumar, Madhava, Maharaja, Pounsamy, Partheeban, Thamodaran, Sridevi, Janardhanam, Sekaran, Ganesan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: DMPO spin trapping; Fluidized bed reactor; Iron impregnated poly acrylamide; Refractory organics removal; Taguchi model
• ISSN: 1876-1070; 1876-1089
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jtice.2014.01.009

•PSS as heterogeneous catalyst degradation of refractory organics in wastewater.•Minimal sludge production and low input energy.•Experimental design and optimization variables for treatment PWW wastewater.•Iron based catalyst generation of hydroxyl radical to destruction of refractory organics. In the present investigation, an attempt was made to treat the pharmaceutical wastewater (PWW) by Iron impregnated poly acrylamide (IPA) compound in a fluidized bed reactor as heterogeneous catalyst. The IPA was characterized by XRD, SEM, EDX, TGA, DSC, fluorescence spectroscopy and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). The experiments were carried out under batch and continuous mode operations. The quantitative removal of COD, BOD5, NH4+-N and TKN from the PWW was evaluated. The oxidation of organics in PWW was confirmed through UV–visible, fluorescence and FT-IR spectroscopy. In this study, the mechanism of oxidation of the persistent organic pollutants in pharmaceutical wastewater in terms of the generation of OH radical using IPA was evaluated. The OH radical was identified by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy and with 5,5-dimethyl-1-pyrroline-N-oxide (DMPO) spin trapping method.