Photocatalytic mineralization of wastewater polluted with commercial dicloxacillin in a pilot-scale solar CPC reactor

In this work, the mineralization of a wastewater sample polluted with commercial dicloxacillin by TiO2-based solar heterogeneous photocatalysis was studied. The experimental tests were carried out in a compound parabolic collector (CPC) type reactor located at the Solar Photocatalytic Laboratory of the Universidad del Valle (Cali, Colombia). A Taguchi experimental design was used for evaluating the effects of the initial pH of the solution and the catalyst concentration on the photocatalytic mineralization of the polluted sample. The results exhibited that total organic carbon (TOC) removal up to 45% could be achieved by TiO2-based solar photocatalysis. According to the signal-to-noise ratios obtained from the Taguchi experimental design, the wastewater mineralization was favored at initial pH of 5 and TiO2 concentration of 0.3 g/l.