Paracetamol Degradation by Catalyst Enhanced Non-Thermal Plasma Process for a Drastic Increase in the Mineralization Rate

Noussaiba Korichi (1) , Olivier Aubry (1) , Hervé Rabat (1) , Benoît Cagnon (2) , Dunpin Hong (1)

1 GREMI - Groupe de recherches sur l'énergétique des milieux ionisés
2 ICMN - Interfaces, Confinement, Matériaux et Nanostructures

In order to remediate the very poor mineralization of paracetamol in water, even when well degraded by using a Non-Thermal Plasma (NTP) process at a very low dissipated power, a plasma-catalyst coupling process was tested and investigated. A homemade glass fiber supported Fe 3+ catalyst was immersed in the liquid to be treated in a Dielectric Barrier Discharge plasma reactor. The plasma-catalysis process, at the same low dissipated power, achieved a mineralization rate of 54% with a full conversion rate of paracetamol at 25 mg L −1 in initial concentration after 60 min treatment, thanks to Fenton-like effects. The synergetic effects of the plasma-catalysis coupling process also improved the Energy Yield by a factor of two. The catalyst before and after use for treatment was characterized by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller and Thermogravimetric analysis. High-Performance Liquid Chromatography was used to measure the concentration of treated solution and to investigate the intermediates. Two of them, namely 1,4-hydroquinone and 1,4-benzoquinone, were formally identified. Some intermediates are presented in this paper as a function of treatment time and their UV absorbance spectra. NTP processes with and without catalyst coupling were compared in terms of acidity, conductivity, and nitrate concentrations in the treated solution.

Mots clés: non-thermal plasma (NTP); heterogeneous Fenton catalyst; advanced oxidation process (AOP); paracetamol degradation; water treatment; mineralization; energy yield

Domaines: Plasmas

Noussaiba Korichi, Olivier Aubry, Hervé Rabat, Benoît Cagnon, Dunpin Hong. Paracetamol Degradation by Catalyst Enhanced Non-Thermal Plasma Process for a Drastic Increase in the Mineralization Rate. Catalysts, 2020, 10 (9), pp.959. ⟨10.3390/catal10090959⟩. ⟨hal-02920050⟩