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Electrochemical Degradation of a Real Pharmaceutical Effluent

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Abstract

In this work, the electrochemical treatment of an effluent from the pharmaceutical industry with boron-doped diamond electrodes was investigated. The electrolyses were carried out in a discontinuous operation mode under galvanostatic conditions, using a bench-scale plant equipped with a single-compartment electrochemical flow cell. The effect of operating conditions, such as current density (from 25.7 to 179.4 mA cm2) and flow rate (from 104.8 to 564.7 cm3 min−1), at residence times between 0 and 570 min, was studied. Design of experiments was used for optimizing the process. The global contribution of operative parameters and evolution of the residence time in TOC removal was studied, and a time of 77 min was obtained in order to evaluate the highest influence of the operative parameters. For this time, ANOVA test reported significance for four of the five involved variables. The current density was found to have a considerable positive effect on TOC removal, whereas the flow rate was found to have a moderate negative effect on target variable.

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Acknowledgments

This investigation has been supported by the Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología CTQ 2010-14823/PPQ project as well as the Junta de Extremadura under PRI-07A031 project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering and Physical Chemistry. Area of Chemical Engineering. Faculty of Sciences, University of Extremadura, Avda. de Elvas, s/n, 06006, Badajoz, Spain

    Joaquín R. Domínguez, T. González, P. Palo & J. Sánchez-Martín

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Chemical Sciences, University of Castilla La Mancha, Campus Universitario s/n, 13071, Ciudad Real, Spain

    M. A. Rodrigo & C. Sáez

Authors
  1. Joaquín R. Domínguez
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  2. T. González
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  3. P. Palo
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  4. J. Sánchez-Martín
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  5. M. A. Rodrigo
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  6. C. Sáez
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. Sánchez-Martín.

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Domínguez, J.R., González, T., Palo, P. et al. Electrochemical Degradation of a Real Pharmaceutical Effluent. Water Air Soil Pollut 223, 2685–2694 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-011-1059-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-011-1059-3

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