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Degradation of Pharmaceutical Waste by Titanium Dioxide Solar
Photocatalytic
Nurul Atiqah Mohd Nazri
Supervisor: Dr. Wan Salida Wan Mansor
Bachelor of Technology (Environment)
School of Ocean Engineering
Universiti Malaysia Terengganu
Municipal wastewater and effluent which contained pharmaceutical waste has become
an important issue because it may risk human health when used for drinking water
after conventional treatment. The solar photocatalytic activity is one of the effective
process to degrade the pharmaceutical waste by using solar irradiation in the presence
of catalyst in order to produce clean water. The aim of this work was to study the
solar light influence and the operational parameter on titanium dioxide (TiO2)
photocatalytic activity. Photocatalyst dosage and initial concentration of paracetamol
were varied. Paracetamol was used as a model compound and the paracetamol
concentration analysed via UV-vis spectrophotometer. Results showed that the highest
degradation rate occurred at 15 mg/L of concentration and 3.0 g of TiO2. This indicates
that the solar photocatalytic could play as a role in treating the pharmaceutical waste.
79 | U M T U N D E R G R A D U A T E R E S E A R C H D A Y 2019