Degradation kinetics and removal efficiencies of pharmaceuticals by photocatalytic ceramic membranes using ultraviolet light-emitting diodes

The development of ultraviolet light-emitting diode (UV-LED) technology provides more potential for the application of photocatalytic membranes. In this study, graphene oxide-titanium dioxide (GO-TiO2) photocatalytic ceramic membranes were prepared and activated by UV-LED. We systematically evaluated the removal of naproxen (NAP), carbamazepine (CBZ) and diclofenac (DCF) under 365 nm, 300 nm and 275 nm UV-LED irradiation in photocatalytic ceramic membrane reactors (PCMRs). Our results showed that this GO-TiO2 modified ceramic membrane achieved simultaneous separation and photocatalytic degradation for tested pharmaceuticals. Through fluence-based and energy-based efficiencies analysis, the 300 nm UV-LED is a good option for achieving a high removal efficiency with low energy consumption. Membrane filtration enhanced the degradation efficiency by four times through enhancing the mass transfer effect in membrane pores, and reduced the electrical energy per order (EEO) by a factor of ten. In addition, high membrane flux, high degradation rate and strong catalytic stability could be simultaneously achieved in closed-loop dead-end filtration. The addition of H2O2 could further increased the removal efficiency. PCMRs equipped with UV-LEDs are promising for pharmaceuticals removal as well as solving the issue of membrane concentrated water.