EFFICIENT DEGRADATION OF PARACETAMOL BY UV/PERSULFATE AND HEAT/PERSULFATE SYSTEMS

Persulfate based oxidation processes have gained increasingly attention in recent years. Persulfate would be activated by heat, UV or metal catalyst, producing highly oxidative sulfate radicals to degrade pollutants. Degradation of paracetamol (APAP) in water by two persulfate based oxidation processes (UV/Persulfate and heat/Persulfate) was studied to compare the difference between heat or UV activated persulfate systems. For all the reaction conditions tested in study, the APAP decomposition exhibited a pseudo-first-order kinetics pattern (R-2 >= 0.95). The removal efficiency and the pseudo-first-order degradation rate constant (k(obs)) were affected by initial APAP concentration, oxidant dosage, pH, co-existing chemical such as humic acid, chloride, bicarbonate to different degrees. Considering the energy and chemical costs, the electrical energy per order (EE/O) was determined as the following order: Heat/Persulfate (31.8 kWh/m(3)/order) > UV/Persulfate (23.8 kWh/m(3)/order). Results demonstrated that heat and UV activated persulfate systems are potential alternatives to control pollution caused by emerging contaminants such as paracetamol.