The concern about aquatic ecosystems and the potential risk of drinking water contamination by pharmaceuticals have stimulated the study of processes for the efficient degradation of these contaminants, since the conventional treatment have been inefficient on that purpose. The advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) appear as viable alternatives due to their efficiency on the degradation of different classes of organic contaminants. This review presents an overview of the main AOP (O3, H2O2/UV, TiO2/UV, Fenton and photo-Fenton) which have been applied to the degradation of different pharmaceuticals. The main results obtained, intermediates identified and toxicity data are presented.

In this work the application of the photo-Fenton process for the treatment of washing water of herbicide containers using solar energy was studied. The influence of the H2O2 concentration and the iron source on the degradation of tebuthiuron and diuron was investigated. The degradation efficiency was strongly affected by the iron source. Using ferrioxalate, total mineralization of diuron and tebuthiuron was obtained either for the individual compounds or for a mixture containing both herbicides, while when using Fe(NO3)3, the maximum mineralization reached for both herbicides was only 50%.

A influência de parâmetros operacionais como a agitação da solução durante irradiação solar e a vazão de alimentação de um fotorreator com irradiação artificial foi avaliada na fotodegradação de 2-clorofenol (2CF) e 2,4-diclorofenol (DCF) por processo foto-Fenton mediado por ferrioxalato. Após avaliação destes parâmetros, os sistemas foram aplicados na fotodegradação de fenol e de mono, (2-clorofenol e 4-clorofenol), di (2,4-diclorofenol) e tri (2,4,6-triclorofenol) clorofenóis a fim de avaliar a eficiência de fotodegradação destes compostos sob irradiação solar e artificial. Foi observada pequena diferença nas porcentagens de remoção de carbono orgânico total (COT) e de geração de íons cloreto nos experimentos de fotodegradação de 2CF sem agitação e com agitação sob irradiação solar. Sob irradiação artificial, um aumento da vazão de alimentação do sistema resultou em menor porcentagem de remoção de COT, ao passo que uma maior velocidade de remoção foi obtida devido a um menor tempo de irradiação. Foi então utilizada uma vazão intermediária de 33,4 mL min-1. Sob irradiação solar, foram necessários 15 minutos de irradiação para a completa remoção de todos os clorofenóis, entretanto para fenol, a completa remoção foi atingida em 20 minutos. Sob irradiação artificial, os clorofenóis foram removidos entre 4,5 e 6,5 minutos de irradiação. A velocidade de degradação aumenta ligeiramente com o aumento do número de cloros ligados ao anel aromático tanto sob irradiação artificial como solar.

The influence of some operational parameters such as stirring the solution during solar irradiation and the solution flow rate into artificial irradiation photoreactor were evaluated on the photodegradation of 2-chlorophenol (2CP) and 2,4-diclorophenol (DCP) by photo-Fenton process mediated by ferrioxalate. After evaluation of these parameters, the systems were applied to photodegradation of phenol and mono (2-chlorophenol and 4-clorophenol), di (2,4-dichlorophenol) and tri (2,4,6-trichlorophenol) chlorophenols to evaluate the photodegradation efficiency of these compounds under solar as well as artificial irradiation. Small differences in the percentages of total organic carbon (TOC) removal and generation of chloride ions were observed with and without stirring the solution during solar irradiation of 2CP. Under artificial irradiation, the increase of flow rate resulted in lower TOC removal, while a higher rate of TOC removal was obtained due to a shorter irradiation time. An intermediate flow rate of 33.4 mL min-1 was then used. Under solar irradiation, 15 minutes irradiation were necessary for complete removal of all chlorophenols, however, the complete removal of phenol was achieved in 20 minutes. Under artificial irradiation, the chlorophenols were removed between 4.5 and 6.5 minutes of irradiation. The degradation rates increased slightly with the increase of the number of chlorides bonded to the aromatic ring under solar as well as artificial irradiation.