Hydrothermal treatment of pharmaceutical wastewater

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe effective disposal of industrial pharmaceutical waste waters with the desired quality has become a challenge. Supercritical water oxidation which involves water beyond critical point has been preferred due to its near complete conversions. This research work made an attempt to degrade the organic matter into fuel gases by gasifying the pharmaceutical waste water stream over sub- to supercritical temperature range (200–400°C). A maximum of 126.5 mmol/L of H2 gas yield was obtained at 400°C for 45 min. To achieve complete conversion, supercritical experiments have been performed in the presence of H2O2. The experiments resulted near complete conversion of 99.5% for an oxidation coefficient of 4 at 400°C in 5 min. The experimental results conveyed that useful products (H2, CO and CH4) can be attained with gasification in the absence of oxidant, while complete conversion can be achieved in the presence of oxidant in supercritical water.