Abstract

                                Increased exploitation of water resources by the industries has attaineda level of saturation denoting the complete exploitation of water in thenear future. The organic contaminants in the pharmaceutical effluentremain partially degraded at the end of conventional wastewater treatmenttechnologies thereby posing a challenge. Electrochemical Oxidation andUV Oxidation processes have proven to be effective in treating these typeof contaminants in the pharmaceutical effluents. This study focuses on theintegration of Electrochemical and UV Oxidation in the presence of Fenton’sreagent for the effective treatment of pharmaceutical contaminants. It hasbeen observed that the maximum reduction (>90%) of Chemical OxygenDemand (COD) and Total Organic Carbon (TOC) was achieved during thecombination of Electrochemical and UV Oxidation in the presence of 500mg L-1 Fenton’s reagent.

Key words : Electrochemical oxidation; Photo-chemical oxidation; Pharmaceutical effluent; Chemical oxygen demand