https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1501-6422
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ABSTRACT
Pharmaceutical residues can cause serious water pollution problems, harm human health and destroy the ecological balance. FeSO4·7H2O optimisation of the earthed atomising corona discharge (Fe-EACD) process was used to dispose of pharmaceutical wastewater in this research. Experiments were analyzed by VI characteristic curves to optimise the electrode distance (20–50 mm) and wire electrode diameter (0.3–0.5 mm). The effects of discharging voltage (7–12 kV), time (0–54 min) and FeSO4 dosage (0.2–1.2 g/L) were investigated using the response surface methodology (RSM). According to the RSM results, the best removal efficiency of COD (89.6%) was detected at the optimal discharging voltage of 12 kV, time of 42 min and Fe2+ concentration of 0.4 g/L. The Fe-EACD process could work efficiently with BOD5/COD ratio moving to 0.49 in an acid environment. The kinetic analysis and mechanism study suggested that the Fe-EACD process was demonstrated well by the pseudo-first-order based on the correlation coefficient (R2). Active •OH producing in the EACD process is responsible for the COD removal and the FeSO4·7H2O as a catalyst can promote the formation of active hydroxyl. In other words, EACD with Fe2+ optimisation was an economic and feasible process for pharmaceutical wastewater treatment.
GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
Acknowledgement
The authors are thankful to the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51508342).
Data availability statement
The data and materials that support the results or analyses presented in this paper are freely available from all authors by request.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).