Determination of pharmaceutical compounds in hospital wastewater and their elimination by advanced oxidation processes

This study investigates the mineralization efficiency, i.e. removal of total organic carbon (TOC) in hospital wastewater by direct ozonation, ozonation with UV radiation (O-3/UV), homogeneous catalytic ozonation (O-3/Fe2+) and homogeneous photocatalytic ozonation (O-3/Fe2+/UV). The influence of pH and reaction time was evaluated. For the best process, toxicity and degradation efficiency of the selected pharmaceutical compounds (PhCs) were determined. The results showed that the PhCs detected in the hospital wastewater were completely degraded when the mineralization efficiency reached 54.7% for O-3/UV with 120minutes of reaction time using a rate of 1.57g O-3 h(-1). This process also achieved a higher chemical oxygen demand removal efficiency (64.05%), an increased aromaticity reduction efficiency (81%) and a toxicity reduction.