Investigating the efficiency of chemical coagulation/Electro-Fenton process in the removal of organic matter from pharmaceutical industry wastewater

Background and Objective: Wastewater from pharmaceutical industry has high chemical oxygen demand as a result of the presence of organic drugs and antibiotics. In order to meet the environmental requirements, several treatment methods like chemical and electrochemical methods have been widely applied due to their high ability to remove organic compounds from pharmaceutical wastewater. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the efficiency of chemical coagulation/Electro-Fenton treatment method to degrade the organic matter-containing pharmaceutical industry wastewater. Materials and Methods: The experimental tests were carried out using batch mode. The chemical coagulation process was evaluated as a function of aluminum chloride concentration (25-300 mg/L) and pH (3-10). The effluent from chemical coagulation process was transferred to Electro-Fenton reactor. Effects of H2O2 concentration (100-4000 mg/L), reaction time (up to 120 min), voltage (10-30 V), and pH (3-10) were evaluated. The removal efficiency was determined in term of COD removal. Results: The results showed that the highest removal of COD in the chemical coagulation was 49% (coagulant dose of 200 mg/L, and pH of 7). In addition, the Electro-Fenton process could be eliminating of 93.5% of COD at the optimum conditions concentration (100 mg/L H2O2, voltage of 20, pH of 3, and contact time of 30 min). Conclusion: According to the results, it can be concluded that the combination of chemical and electrochemical processes was found to be effective methods for treatment of pharmaceutical wastewater in comparison to the application of each process separately. To reach to the maximum removal efficiency, the environmental parameters should be carefully controlled at their optimum values in each single process.