Assessment of common persulfate activation techniques for the degradation of theophylline drug in pharmaceutical production plant wastewater

Abstract

Oxidative degradation of emerging waterborne contaminants, particularly pharmaceuticals, by AOPs has gained a major interest in the past decade. The aim of this work was to assess the degradation of theophylline (TP), which is a pharmaceutical, utilizing persulfate (PS) activated by UV light, thermally and chemically. The latter two activation techniques were studied both separately and combined. Additionally, TP was eliminated from a simulated and a real industrial effluent.