Sonophotolytic degradation of synthetic pharmaceutical wastewater: statistical experimental design and modeling.

The merits of the sonophotolysis as a combination of sonolysis (US) and photolysis (UV/H2O2) are investigated in a pilot-scale external loop airlift sonophotoreactor for the treatment of a synthetic pharmaceutical wastewater (SPWW). In the first part of this study, the multivariate experimental design is carried out using Box-Behnken design (BBD). The effluent is characterized by the total organic carbon (TOC) percent removal as a surrogate parameter.