PHOTOCATALYTIC DEGRADATION OF PHARMACEUTICAL WASTE WATER USING TIGERNUT AND TITANIUM DIOXIDE AS PHOTOCATALYST

ABSTRACT

This study focused on the photocatalytic degradation of pharmaceutical wastewater using tiger nut and Titanium dioxide (TiO2) as photocatalysts in a photocatalytic reactor and in the dark (adsorption). The aim of the experiment was to treat pharmaceutical wastewater using titanium dioxide and tiger nut as catalyst. The degradation efficiency of the pharmaceutical wastewater both in the dark and in a photo-catalytic reactor was investigated. The experimental set-up was used to determine the optimum conditions for the photocatalytic reaction and adsorption by varying the effect of operating parameters such as catalyst dosage, pH, and contact time. The catalyst dosage was varied from 0.5g/l to 3.0g/l, pH of 4-11, irradiation time from 30min to100 min, flow rate of 120rpm, and a UV-Intensity of 450W. The optimum values of catalyst dosage, pH and contact time were gotten to be (3.0g, 4 and 100 minutes) for the photocatalytic degradation and this reduced our COD presents in the pharmaceutical wastewater by 95.41% while for the adsorption studies, our optimal values of catalyst dosage, pH and contact time were gotten to be (1.75g, 4.0 and 100 minutes) and this reduced our COD presents in the pharmaceutical wastewater by 95.50% which is slightly higher than the photocatalytic degradation. The adsorption studies were found to be suitable as they produced a higher degradation efficiency and our Pseudo second-order kinetics model was best fitted for the adsorption studies because it has an R2 value of 0.9908 which is greater than the Pseudo first- order and Intra particle diffusion model.