Central composite design applied to paracetamol degradation by heat-activated peroxydisulfate oxidation process and its relevance as a pretreatment prior to a biological treatment.

In this study, the degradation of paracetamol (PCT) by thermo-activated peroxydisulfate (PDS) and the feasibility of coupling thermo-activated peroxydisulfate to activated sludge culture were examined. The effect of the relevant parameters on the thermo activated peroxydisulfate process, namely temperature, PDS concentration, initial pH and initial PCT concentration was investigated. As observed, the solution pH did not have a significant effect on the PCT degradation.

Photocatalytic degradation of bezacryl yellow in batch reactors--feasibility of the combination of photocatalysis and a biological treatment.

A combined process coupling photocatalysis and a biological treatment was investigated for the removal of Bezacryl yellow (BZY), an industrial-use textile dye. Photocatalytic degradation experiments of BZY were carried out in two stirred reactors, operating in batch mode with internal or external irradiation. Two photocatalysts (TiO2P25 and TiO2PC500) were tested and the dye degradation was studied for different initial pollutant concentrations (10-117 mg L(-1)).