Ozone Kinetic Studies Assessment for the PPCPs Abatement: Mixtures Relevance

The increasing consumption of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) by humankind has been causing an accumulation of contaminants (commonly referred to as contaminants of emerging concern), in effluents and water resources. Ozonation can be used to improve the removal of these contaminants during water treatment to alleviate this burden. In this work, the degradation of methyl (MP), propylparaben (PP), paracetamol (PCT), sulfamethoxazole (SMX), and carbamazepine (CBZ) by ozonation was assessed both for individual compounds and for mixtures with increasing complexity (two to five compounds). Ozonation was performed at pH3 to gain an insight on the exclusive action of molecular ozone as oxidizing agent. The degradation of contaminants was described as a function of time and transferred ozone dose, and the corresponding pseudo-first order kinetic rate constants (k') were determined. PPCPs were degraded individually within 1.5 to 10 min. CBZ was the most quickly degraded (k' = 1.25 min(-1)) and MP the most resistant to ozone (k' = 0.25 min(-1)). When in the mixture, the degradation rate of the contaminants was slower. For parabens, the increase of the number of compounds in the mixture led to an exponential decrease of the k' values. Moreover, the presence of more PPCPs within the mixture increased energy consumption associated with the treatment, thereby reflecting higher economic costs.

Automated summary

This study assessed the degradation of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) using ozonation. The results showed that PPCPs can be degraded individually within a short time, but the degradation rate is slower when they are in a mixture. Additionally, the presence of more PPCPs in the mixture increased energy consumption and economic costs associated with the treatment.