Estimation of UV Dose for the Effective Degradation of Pharmaceuticals in Secondary Treated Wastewater

Abstract:

In the study, UV alone and UV/H₂O₂ treatment experiments were performed using secondary treated wastewater spiked with 30 pharmaceuticals. UV intensity of 0.384 mW/cm² was used for calculating UV dose introduced to tested water during each treatment. UV doses of 38 mJ/cm² to 5,644 mJ/cm² were needed for 90% degradation of the 30 pharmaceuticals in secondary effluent. These UV doses are much higher than those required for typical disinfection (40 mJ/cm² ~ 140 mJ/cm²). It can be known that considerable UV dose will be required for the effective removal of pharmaceuticals in secondary effluent. All the pharmaceuticals except 7 pharmaceuticals including cyclophosphamide and 2-QCA (727 mJ/cm² ~ 1,695 mJ/cm²) were degraded by more than 90% under UV dose of 691 mJ/cm² (contact time : 30 min) during UV/H₂O₂ treatment. As a consequence, it is considered that UV/H₂O₂ treatment can contribute to the reduction of energy consumption for the effective pharmaceuticals removal as well as the improvement of the photodegradation rates for the investigated pharmaceuticals.

• Periodical: Materials Science Forum (Volume 804)
• Pages: 213-216
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.804.213
• Online since: October 2014
• Authors: Il Ho Kim, Ji Sung Kim, Hiroaki Tanaka
• Keywords: Pharmaceuticals, Photodegradation, UV, UV/H₂O₂

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