The consumption of pharmaceuticals has increased the presence of micropollutants (MPs) in the environment. The removal and degradation of pharmaceutical mixtures in different water matrices are thus of significant importance. The photocatalytic degradation of four micropollutants-diclofenac (DCF), iopamidol (INN), methylene blue (MB), and metoprolol (MTP)-have been analyzed in this study by using a photocatalytic ceramic membrane. We experimentally analyzed the degradation rate by using several water matrices by changing the feed composition of micropollutants in the mixture (from mg· L-1 to μg·L-1), adding different concentrations of inorganic compounds (NaHCO3 and NaCl), and by using tap water. A maximum degradation of 97% for DCF and MTP, and 85% for INN was observed in a micropollutants (MPs) mixture in tap water at environmentally relevant feed concentrations [1-6 μg·L-1]o; and 86% for MB in an MPs mixture [1-3 mg·L-1]o with 100 mg·L-1 of NaCl. This work provides further insights into the applicability of photocatalytic membranes and illustrates the importance of the water matrix to the photocatalytic degradation of micropollutants.
Keywords: AOP; TiO2; micropollutant degradation; mixture and water matrix effect; photocatalytic membrane; water treatment.