Degradation of acetaminophen in aqueous solution with UV/H2O2?

BRANDI, RODOLFO J.; FLORES, MARINA J.; LABAS, MARISOL D.; LESCANO, MAIA R.

Medellin

Conferencia; 3rd Iberoamerican Conference on Advanced Oxidation Technologies (III CIPOA) and 2nd Colombian Conference on Advanced Oxidation Processes (II CCPAOX); 2017

Universidad de Antioquia

In the last decade, pharmaceuticals have been reported in the water cycle were some types of them may not be completely removed employing sewage treatments, leading to the subsequent pollution of aquatic ecosystems. Derived from data found in literature, the analgesic acetaminophen (AP) was selected for this study. AP oxidation from aqueous solution by the UV/H2O2 process is evaluated and studied. Aquatic toxicity of this treatment was evaluated in an acute toxicity study using Daphnia magna. Different levels of H2O2 and radiation were used at the same pollutant concentration. Results have shown that there is an optimum condition for the process employing 250 mg L -1 of the oxidant. It could be observed that the rate constant for AP degradation increases linearly with the radiation level. It can be concluded that the UV/H2O2 is a feasible technology to produce AP mineralization in very short periods of time employing low amounts of H2O2 and low power germicidal UV lamp.