Abstract

The use of the solar photo-Fenton process is proposed to degrade Paracetamol in water in order to form biodegradable reaction intermediates which can be finally removed with a downstream biological treatment. Firstly, biodegradability enhancement with photo-Fenton treatment time has been evaluated: the minimum mineralization level should be at least 18.6% where Paracetamol has been degraded and biodegradability efficiency is higher than 40%. 20 mg L-1 of Fe2+ and 200 mg L-1 of H2O2 were selected in a lab-scale study looking at Paracetamol's degradation rate and organic carbon mineralization rate. As a result of scaling up the process at a pilot plant, 157.5 mg L-1 of Paracetamol (similar to 1 mM) was treated in 25 min of photo-Fenton treatment achieving the desired biodegradability. A further economic evaluation shows how the proposed treatment strategy markedly increases plant efficiency, resulting in an 83.33% reduction in reagent cost and a 79.11% reduction in costs associated with reaction time. Total cost is reduced from 3.4502 (sic)/m(3) to 0.7392 (sic)/m(3). (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.