Investigating Naproxen Removal from Pharmaceutical Factory Effluents using Novel MIL-88-A/PS/UVA and MIL-88-A/PS/Solar Systems.

Abstract

Safe disposal of the pharmaceutical industry wastewater is a major challenge for developing countries. Conventional wastewater treatment technologies relying on biological treatment were proven to be inefficient in the removal of such compounds. The toxic and stable nature of the compounds led to negative effects on the performance of municipal wastewater treatment plants necessitating the need to adopt at-source treatment solutions. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are the at-source technologies adopted for the elimination of pharmaceuticals and other persistent organic pollutants. AOPs can be applied using several oxidants out of which persulfate (PS) is showing promising results. PS can undergo, chemical, UV and/or thermal activation. PS generates sulfate radicals upon its activation which has properties not found in hydroxyl radicals. Recently, heterogeneous activation of PS has gained attention in the research community for the possibility to reclaim the activator or pack it into a filtration media. Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs), are a highly porous material with excellent catalytic properties that are a great candidate to be tested as an activating agent in PS-based AOPs. MIL-88-A, an iron-based MOF, characterized by its stability, reusability, and environmentally friendly synthesis process will be used in our research as a model MOF. The aim will be to eliminate Naproxen (NAP), a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) and a widely used pharmaceutical, from simulated wastewater. The research will focus on the use of solar energy versus UVA/UVB radiation for the activation of MIL-88-A which will activate PS in order to eliminate NAP. MIL-88-A was synthesized and characterized to pursue this research. Preliminary experiments have been conducted to check MIL-88-A/PS activation. The system was optimized and tested for its recyclability, reproducibility, and matrix variations. In UVA/MIL-88-A/PS system the % degradation of NAP ([NAP]0 = 50 ppm) was 87.2% occurred in period of two hours and 40 minutes, and total degradation of NAP ([NAP]0 = 50 ppm) occurred in 10-15 minutes in a system of Solar/MIL-88-A/PS.