Photodegradation of paracetamol using TiO2 in a rectangular bubble column reactor

Surface water, wastewater, and drinking water have all been found to contain paracetamol and its toxic breakdown products. Effective ways to degrade these products must be discovered to lessen their harmful effects on aquatic microorganisms and human health. The study focuses on finding effective methods to degrade harmful products, specifically paracetamol, to mitigate their negative impact on aquatic microorganisms and human health. To achieve this, the research investigates a photocatalytic process enhanced by introducing air bubbles, aiming to improve the degradation of paracetamol. The experiments were carried out in a batch reactor and a semi-batch rectangular bubble column, which measured 1500 mm in height, 30 mm in depth, and 200 mm in width, all under UV light. Titanium oxide (TiO2) served as the catalyst. The study examined the impact of various operating conditions, pH levels (ranging from 3 to 10), airflow rates (0 to 2 L/min), and irradiation times (0 to 240 minutes) on the removal of paracetamol the results show that changes in pH values affected the photodegradation of paracetamol, and using pH 7 gives higher COD removal percentage values. Indeed, using air bubbles improves the COD removal percentage to 78%. The degradation of paracetamol was investigated using HPLC analysis, and the maximum removal of paracetamol was 91.2% using optimum operating conditions of pH=7, flow rate 1 L/min, after 240 min. The kinetic study is consistent with the pseudo-first-order reaction model.