Investigation of the effecting parameters on the removal of Acetaminophen using Cyclic Biological Reactor (CBR)

Document Type : Original Research

Authors
H. Khoshvaght1 1
M. delnavaz 2
M. Leili 3
1 1. MSc Student in Civil-Environmental Engineering, Kharazmi University
2 2. Associate professor, Faculty of Engineering, Civil Engineering Department, Kharazmi University
3 Associate professor, Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences
Abstract
As a result of progressing of industries and population growth, new chemical contaminants have entered to natural water resources that in order to protect the environment and promote hygiene, they should be purified. Acetaminophen is the most widely used chemical pharmaceutical compound. In this study has been tried to omit acetaminophen from water solutions by cyclic biologic procedures. This kind of procedures are friendly environment. The CBR process is a modification of the sequential split reactor (SBR) process. However, instead of the wastewater being injected into the reactor, the contaminant is injected into the process using a continuous drip pump, thus the possibility of shock to the reactor. The purification process is reduced. This treatment system can be used for treatment of various types of municipal and industrial wastewater. In this study synthetic sewage includes acetaminophen, in laboratory scale, has been treated. The first phase of the test involved the adaptation of acetaminophen-degrading microorganisms that lasted for 50 days. Secondary settling sludge from a pharmaceutical company was used for primary seeding. Then the effect of cycle time (6-24 hours), hydraulic retention time (10.03-27.30 hours), density of inlet contaminant (100-1000 mg/L), density of inlet COD (360-7600 mg/L), and temperature (14-30°C), on the reactor's performance was investigated. The pH value has been checking and setting on 7 at all stages. At the end of study, the performance of the two CBR and SBR reactors was compared. During the tests, the concentration of ACT was measured by UV-Vis set. The other parameters were measured based on the standard procedures. The results showed the reactor had the best performance in 18 hours' cycle. The average of removal efficiency of COD and ACT in during this period was 94.70% and 94.97%, respectively. In the phase of control of the concentration of inlet contaminant, the result showed in density of inlet acetaminophen 500 mg/L, hydraulic retention time 44.38 hours, and the 16 hours' aeration cycle, the reactor can remove more than 99% of acetaminophen and 97% of COD in the contaminants. In the same condition and concentration of inlet acetaminophen up to 1000 mg/L, removal efficiency of ACT and COD was more than 96% and 94%, respectively. Also temperature changes had a great effect on the reactor performance, so that with increasing temperature up to 30°C, COD removal efficiency decreased by 16% to 78%. Whereas with the change of temperature from 14° to 30°C the ACT mean removal was 97.8%. The results of comparing the performance of the two CBR and SBR reactors were also significant, so that, in the same condition, in the SBR, the removal efficiency of COD and ACT were decreased 15% and 10%, respectively. Since the cyclic biological reactor is injected by stepwise process, the results show foodstuffs are more rapidly absorbed by microorganisms, because microorganisms are more than foods. This feature increases the removal efficiency of organic matter in this system over continuous flow systems. Also, due to this feature, the reactor is highly resistant against of load shock. Given that all the phases, settling and discharging processes, take place in one storage, without worrying about leaving MLSS through the effluent, it can be greatly increased.

Keywords

Subjects

[1] Klavarioti, M., et al. (2009). "Removal of residual pharmaceuticals from aqueous systems by advanced oxidation processes." Environ Int 35(2): 402-417.
[2] Abdullah, N., et al. (2016). "Assessing the treatment of acetaminophen-contaminated brewery wastewater by an anaerobic packed-bed reactor." J Environ Manage 168: 273-279.
[3] Li, Y., et al. (2015). "The roles of halides in the acetaminophen degradation by UV/H2O2 treatment: Kinetics, mechanisms, and products analysis." Chemical Engineering Journal 271: 214-222.
[4] Chang, C.-T., et al. (2015). "Photocatalytic degradation of acetaminophen in aqueous solutions by TiO2/ZSM-5 zeolite with low energy irradiation." Materials Science and Engineering: B 196: 53-60.
[5] de Luna, M. D., et al. (2013). "Kinetics of acetaminophen degradation by Fenton oxidation in a fluidized-bed reactor." Chemosphere 90(4): 1444-1448.
[6] Xiao, H., et al. (2013). "Transformation of acetaminophen using manganese dioxide-mediated oxidative processes: reaction rates and pathways." J Hazard Mater 250-251: 138-146.
[7] Inkielewicz-Stępniak, I. and N. Knap (2012). "Effect of exposure to fluoride and acetaminophen on oxidative/nitrosative status of liver and kidney in male and female rats." Pharmacological Reports 64(4): 902-911.
[8] Xie, G., et al. (2016). "Photoelectrochemical degradation of acetaminophen and valacyclovir using nanoporous titanium dioxide." Chinese Journal of Catalysis 37(7): 1062-1069.
[9] Mowla A., Mehrvar M., Dhib R., (2014). “Combination of sonophotolysis and aerobic activated sludge processes for treatment of synthetic pharmaceutical wastewater”. Journal of Chemical Engineering; 255.411-23.
[10] Fan H, Li J. Zhang Feng L. (2014). “Contribution of sludge adsorption and biodegradation to the removal of five pharmaceuticals in a submerged membrane bioreactor”. Journal of Biochemical Engineering; 88:101-7.
[11] Komesli, O. T., et al. (2017). "Comparison of EDCs removal in full and pilot scale membrane bioreactor plants: Effect of flux rate on EDCs removal in short SRT." Journal of Environ Manage 203(Pt 2): 847-852.
[12] Rahman N., Nasir M. (2020). “Effective removal of acetaminophen from aqueous solution using Ca (II)-doped chitosan/β-cyclodextrin composite.” Journal of Molecular Liquids.
[13] Mojiri A., Vakili M., et al. (2019). “Combined ozone oxidation process and adsorption methods for the removal of acetaminophen and amoxicillin from aqueous solution; kinetic and optimization.” Journal of Environmental Technology & Innovation
[14] Ahed H., Amani Z., et al. (2020). “Removal of acetaminophen from water by simulated solar light photodegradation with ZnO and TiO2 nanoparticles: Catalytic efficiency assessment for future prospects.” Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering.
[15] Leili, M., Moussavi, G., & Naddafi, K. (2014). “Removal of Furfural from Wastewater Using Integrated Catalytic Ozonation and Biological Approaches.” Avicenna Journal of Environ Health Eng.
[16] Moussavi, G., & Heidarizad, M. (2010). “Biodegradation of mixture of phenol and formaldehyde in wastewater using a single-basin MSCR process.” Journal of Biotechnology, 240-245.
[17] Moussavi, G., et al. (2016). "Investigation of furfural biodegradation in a continuous inflow cyclic biological reactor." Water Sci Technol 73(2): 292-301.
[18] Behera, S. (2012). "UV-Visible Spectrophotometric Method Development and Validation of Assay of Paracetamol Tablet Formulation." Journal of Analytical & Bioanalytical Techniques 03(06).
[19] Vaiano, V., et al. (2018). "UV-LEDs floating-bed photoreactor for the removal of caffeine and paracetamol using ZnO supported on polystyrene pellets." Chemical Engineering Journal 350: 703-713.
[20] Eaton AD, Franson MAH. Standard methods for the examination of water & wastewater: Amer Public Health Assn; 2017.
Modares Civil Engineering journal
Volume 20, Issue 6
November and December 2020
Pages 63-74