Abstract:
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Bisphenol A (BPA; 2,2-bis (4-hydroxyphenyl) propane) is an industrial organic chemical basically used in
the plastics industry as a monomer for producing epoxy resins and polycarbonates [1,2]. It is also a well-known
endocrine disruptor agent that contaminates surface waters even at low concentration [3].
Unfortunately, BPA cannot be entirely removed from water solutions by conventional treatments.
Additionally, in some cases, such treatments can lead to a series of by-products with higher endocrine disrupting
effect [4].
Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs), among them the Fenton and photo-Fenton processes, are efficient
methods for BPA photodegradation [1]. However, they are energy-intensive processes and their cost is ought to
be improved by reducing the reaction time as well as the consumption of reagents.
In this work, the Fenton and the photo-Fenton degradation of BPA (0,5 L, 30 mg L-1) was addressed. The
process efficiency was evaluated under different H2O2 and Fe(II) initial concentrations (2,37-6,41 mM H2O2 and
1,42·10-2-3,92·10-2 mM iron salt), while other variables were fixed (pH=3, 25ºC, UV light source). The
treatment performance was assessed for a series of assays from a factorial design and was quantified in terms of
the decay rate of total organic carbon (TOC) and the total conversion attained, according to a pseudo first order
kinetics [5-6].
The performance of the mineralization may be characterized by determining the two parameters of
the model, ¿max (or [TOC]8) and k, which can be obtained by fitting the model to the experimental data under the
least squares criterion. The results were plot k in front to identify different clusters and the conditions which
produces higher mineralization rates |