| Pharmaceuticals contaminating wastewaters raised an increasing concern in recent years due to their ecotoxicity to the environment. Beta-blockers are a class of pharmaceuticals that have been used for a long time in Europe and North America. Since conventional wastewater treatment processes cannot remove these pharmaceuticals effectively, advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are used to enhance their removal from wastewater. To compare the energy consumption and treatment efficiency of AOPs, the concept of electrical energy per order (EE/O) was introduced. In this research, three beta-blockers (atenolol, nadolol and metoprolol) were selected to investigate the effect of different mixing conditions on EE/O value. The result shows that the EE/O value for a certain beta-blocker would change in a mixing solution. The more beta-blockers in the solution, the higher EE/O value would be found. The comparison of the results also shows that there is no linear relationship that could be determined for the incremental concentration of β-blockers' EE/O value. |
