A study on emerging contaminant amiodarone removal in water - experimental investigations and modeling

Abstract

In the recent times, pharmaceutical contaminants in water are posing a negative impact on the environment. In India, pharmaceutical contaminant Ciproflaxin was detected at a highest concentration of 31 mg/L from the wastewater effluent of bulk pharmaceutical production plant located in Hyderabad. To increase the overall removal of these emerging pharmaceutical contaminants pre-treatment of strong pharmaceutical wastewater at a higher concentration can be done. In this study one of the critical pharmaceutical contaminant in India, Amiodarone (AMD) removal was investigated employing a UV/TiO2 based photoreactor. Three parameters were included in the study. The parameters include initial concentrations of AMD ranging between 50 and 100 mg/L, reaction time between 10 and 30 min, the photocatalyst concentration viz., TiO2 dosage between 500 and 1000 mg/L. The experimental data was used for performing the further analysis and was done using MINITAB software. An empirical equation was obtained correlating the Amiodarone removal and the three parameters considered in the study.