Comparative study of degradation of pharmaceutical and personal care products in wastewater by advanced oxidation processes: Fenton, UV/H₂O₂, UV/TiO₂

In conventional wastewater treatment plants, micropollutants mix with the aquatic environment because they cannot be removed entirely due to their nonbiodegradable structure. Advanced oxidation processes can be considered an alternative solution to this problem. In this study, five different pharmaceutical and personal care products, carbamazepine, diclofenac, ibuprofen, paracetamol, and triclosan, which are commonly found in aquatic environments, were selected as target pollutants. The removal of these target pollutants was investigated using advanced oxidation methods such as the Fenton and UV processes (UV, UV/H2O2, and UV/TiO2). The feasibility of processes in terms of cost was investigated. In the study, both initial and final pharmaceutical concentrations were measured using liquid chromatography mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry to accurately calculate removal efficiency. It has been determined that processes other than the UV process have removal efficiency >99.9%. The UV process showed removal efficiency of 40% for carbamazepine, 90% for diclofenac, 85% for ibuprofen, 86% for paracetamol and 85% for triclosan. Among the processes with high removal efficiency, the Fenton process has been integrated into wastewater treatment plants and has been shown to be the most suitable system in terms of both performance and cost in solving the micropollutant problem.