Iron foam combined ozonation for enhanced treatment of pharmaceutical wastewater

Yuanxing Huang; Jiewen Jiang; Luming Ma; Yaowei Wang; Manli Liang; Zhiguo Zhang; Liang Li

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2020.109205

Iron foam combined ozonation for enhanced treatment of pharmaceutical wastewater

Environ Res. 2020 Apr:183:109205. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.109205. Epub 2020 Jan 31.

Authors

Yuanxing Huang¹, Jiewen Jiang², Luming Ma³, Yaowei Wang⁴, Manli Liang⁵, Zhiguo Zhang⁶, Liang Li⁷

Affiliations

¹ School of Environment and Architecture, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, No. 516 Jungong Rd., Shanghai, 200093, PR China. Electronic address: huangyuanxing@usst.edu.cn.
² School of Environment and Architecture, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, No. 516 Jungong Rd., Shanghai, 200093, PR China. Electronic address: 102618217@qq.com.
³ Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, PR China. Electronic address: lumingma@tongji.edu.cn.
⁴ School of Environment and Architecture, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, No. 516 Jungong Rd., Shanghai, 200093, PR China. Electronic address: 942212939@qq.com.
⁵ School of Environment and Architecture, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, No. 516 Jungong Rd., Shanghai, 200093, PR China. Electronic address: 675760753@qq.com.
⁶ School of Environment and Architecture, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, No. 516 Jungong Rd., Shanghai, 200093, PR China. Electronic address: zgzhang@usst.edu.cn.
⁷ School of Environment and Architecture, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, No. 516 Jungong Rd., Shanghai, 200093, PR China. Electronic address: liliang@usst.edu.cn.

PMID: 32035408
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.109205

Abstract

In this study, iron foam combined ozonation was employed as an advanced oxidation process to treat the organic contaminants in real pharmaceutical wastewater. It was found that this procedure worked well in a wide range of pH, the existence of iron foam in ozonation system markedly elevated the mineralization level of organic contaminants. Within the reaction time of 120 min, iron foam combined ozonation achieved 53% of DOC removal percentage, which was 21% higher than that of ozone alone. Meanwhile, the biodegradability of the pharmaceutical wastewater was improved, a large part of the organic pollutants containing benzene rings and amino groups were effectively degraded, and a certain amount of phosphate and nitrogen also get removed. In iron foam combined ozonation, zero valent iron played the role as an activator. It was oxidized into iron oxides and oxyhydroxides, the electrons transferring among different valences of iron stimulated the decomposition of ozone and the generation of hydroxyl radicals, which accounted for most of the organic contaminants degradation.

Keywords: Iron foam; Ozonation; Pharmaceutical wastewater.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Iron*
Oxidation-Reduction
Ozone*
Wastewater
Water Pollutants, Chemical*
Water Purification*

Substances

Waste Water
Water Pollutants, Chemical
Ozone
Iron