Electrochemical Removal of Algestone Acetophenide and Estradiol Enanthate in Real Industrial Wastewater

• Published in: International journal of electrochemical science 2019-06, Vol.14 (6), p.5856-5867
• Main Authors: Morais, Ruiter Lima, Garcia, Luane Ferreira, Thomaz, Douglas Vieira, Lobón, Germán Sanz, Rodrigues, Marcella Ferreira, Vaz, Boniek Gontijo, Caetano, Marcos Pereira, de Lacerda Medrado, Lais Camargo, Nunes, Elaine Sousa, dos Santos, Cleidilene Gomes, Ávila, Léo Fernandes, de Souza, Kátia Maria, Vieira, Roulien Paiva, de Souza Gil, Eric
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Electrocoagulation Remediation; Environmental Contamination; Mass spectrometry; Q-TOF; Synthetic Hormones
• ISSN: 1452-3981; 1452-3981
• DOI: 10.20964/2019.04.42

Contaminants removal from industrial effluent is a major environmental concern. In this context, Algestone Acetophenide and Estradiol Enanthate are synthetic sex hormones widely used in the manufacture of contraceptives, whose presence in waterbodies may lead to environmental hazard. Given that so far, the methods employed in the removal of these drugs have presented limited efficiency or high implementation costs, the present work presented an electrochemical reactor composed by 32 carbon steel electrodes (1728 cm2), which was employed in a real scale model to remove these synthetic hormones in an industrial pharmaceutical effluent. After 60 minutes the removal efficiency of the hormones Algestone Acetophenide and Estradiol Enanthate was of 88.9% and of 91.8% respectively, with low energy consumption (< 0.742 kWh.m-3). Physicochemical parameters such as color, turbidity, Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) also showed good removal efficiency too (> 50%), which implicates that the method herein depicted may be a valuable alternative to promote the removal of these contaminants in industrial wastewater.