Removal of diethyl phthalate from water solution by adsorption, photo-oxidation, ozonation and advanced oxidation process (UV/H2O2, O-3/H2O2 and O-3/activated carbon)
Medellin-Castillo, NA; Ocampo-Perez, R; Leyva-Ramos, R; Sanchez-Polo, M; Rivera-Utrilla, J; Mendez-Diaz, JD
The objective of this work was to compare the effectiveness of conventional technologies (adsorption on activated carbon, AC, and ozonation) and technologies based on advanced oxidation processes, AOPs, (UV/H(2)O(2), O(3)/AC, O(3)/H(2)O(2)) to remove phthalates from aqueous solution (ultrapure water, surface water and wastewater). Diethyl phthalate (DEP) was chosen as a model pollutant because of its high water solubility (1,080 mg/L at 293 K) and toxicity. The activated carbons showed a high adsorption capacity to adsorb DEP in aqueous solution (up to 858 mg/g), besides the adsorption mechanism of DEP on activated carbon is governed by dispersive interactions between π electrons of its aromatic ring with π electrons of the carbon graphene planes. The photodegration process showed that the pH solution does not significantly affect the degradation kinetics of DEP and the first-order kinetic model satisfactorily fitted the experimental data. It was observed that the rate of decomposition of DEP with the O(3)/H(2)O(2) and O(3)/AC systems is faster than that with only O(3). The technologies based on AOPs (UV/H(2)O(2), O(3)/H(2)O(2), O(3)/AC) significantly improve the degradation of DEP compared to conventional technologies (O(3), UV). AC adsorption, UV/H(2)O(2), O(3)/H(2)O(2), and O(3)/AC showed a high yield to remove DEP; however, the disadvantage of AC adsorption is its much longer time to reach maximum removal. The best system to treat water (ultrapure and natural) polluted with DEP is the O(3)/AC one since it achieved the highest DEP degradation and TOC removal, as well as the lower water toxicity.