Photocatalytic decontamination in pharmaceutical effluent treatment

Abstract

In recent years, due to the scarcity of fresh water, researchers are giving attention in wastewater treatment for removal of emerging contaminants especially pharmaceutical compounds. These compounds are found at trace levels. Such compounds have significant effects on all living elements in aquatic environment as well as whole ecosystem, human race, e.g., toxicity, resistance development for pathogenic bacteria, genotoxicity, and endocrine disruption, etc. There are several wastewater treatments available for both domestic as well as industrial wastewater; however, these wastewater treatments are unable to treat or separate out pharmaceutical compounds. Thus, researchers are paying attention in advanced oxidation process (AOP) using photocatalytic nanoparticle for treatment of pharmaceutical wastewater. This present chapter represents an in-depth review on photocatalytic decontamination of various pharmaceutical wastes as well as involvement of associated process parameters.