Avaliação da eficiência do processo eletro-fenton utilizando eletrodos de alumínio na descontaminação de uma solução de ciprofloxacina

Abstract

The present work talk about the decontamination of a solution of the drug Ciprofloxacin through an advanced electro-oxidative process called electro-Fenton (EF). An EF reactor was constructed, compound of a 1L capacity becker and an aluminum electrode composed by 4 plates of this metal, which were arranged parallel with a distance of 1,5 cm, operating in a monopolar batch mode. During the EF experiment, an effective area of 152,22 cm 2 of the electrode was used. Were done experimental tests to evaluate the effect of the variables in the process, initially tested as follows: dissolved air addition, initial concentration of H 2 O 2 , initial concentration of Fe 2+ and initial pH. After obtaining an optimum range of values, a rotational central composite design (RCCD) was applied with the interaction of three independent variables: current intensity (A), initial concentration of H 2 O 2 (mg L -1 ) and initial concentration of Fe 2+ (mg L -1 ). The addition of 1.6 L min -1 of air and initial pH 4 was chosen in all DCCR experiments. Through the planning the following optimum working conditions were obtained: 0.8 A for current, 100 mg L -1 for H 2 O 2 and 10 mg L -1 for Fe 2+ . Under these conditions, a CIP decontamination reached 94.81% in just 3 minutes. It demonstrate that an application of electro- Fenton, using aluminum electrodes with parallel plates, is an excellent system in the decontamination of the solution of the drug Ciprofloxacin, minimizing the environmental impacts caused by the disposal of this contaminant in hydric bodies.