Photodegradation of mefenamic acid from wastewater in a continuous flow solar falling film reactor

Abstract

The degradation of mefenamic acid (MFA) in synthetic wastewater was studied utilizing homemade Cu-doped TiO2 nanoparticles in a solar-irradiated falling film reactor. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy analyses were applied to identify the homemade Cu-doped TiO2 nanocatalyst. Adsorption experiments revealed that the Langmuir isotherm model well-described the experimental data. Various operating parameters, such as loadings of MFA (10–75 mg L–1), doped catalyst (300–800 mg L–1), H2 O2 (300–800 mg L–1), synthetic waste-water flow rate (1–3 L min–1), and wastewater pH (3–10), have been investigated for their effects on MFA degradation. A degradation of MFA of 97.5% was achieved within 90 min of the opera-tion period by operating at pH = 10, CCU–TiO2 = 400 mg L–1, C H2 = 400 mg L–1, and Q O2 sw = 1.0 L min–1. The experimental results revealed that an enhancement of 50.09% for degradation of MFA was attained by the 2wt.% Cu-doped TiO2 higher than pure TiO2.