Degradation of Phenol in Pharmaceutical Wastewater using TiO2/Pumice and O3/Active Carbon

Abstract

Phenol is a toxic organic compound that detectable in the pharmaceutical wastewater, and therefore it should be eliminated. This study aims to degrade phenol in the pharmaceutical wastewater treatment using Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) include the photocatalytic process applying Titanium Oxide (TiO2) that immobilized on pumice stone (PS), as well as ozone process with O3 and O3/granulated activated carbon (GAC). Degradation system used two configuration reactors that worked alternately at pH 3 and 9. Photocatalysis was conducted for 4 hours in the photoreactor that equipped with mercury lamp as a photon source, while ozonation was performed for 1 hour in the cylinder glass reactor contained an ozone generator. Phenol degradations were done by photocatalysis, ozonation, photocatalysis followed by ozonation and vice versa. The FESEM-EDS and XRD results depicted that TiO2 has impregnated on pumice stone and FESEM characterization also indicated that the photocatalyst spread across the surface of the pumice stone. BET analysis results in an increased surface area of the PS-TiO2 by 3.7 times, whereas bandgap energy down to 3 eV. It can be concluded that ozone process (with O3/GAC) that followed by photocatalysis at pH 9 could treat the liquid waste with phenol concentration 11.2 down to 1.2 ppm that nearly according to the discharge standards quality (1 ppm). Copyright © 2020 by Authors, Published by BCREC Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0).

Keywords

• tio2
• pumice stone
• ozonation
• o3/gac
• pharmaceutical waste