Photodegradation applied to the treatment of phenol and derived substances catalyzed by TiO2/BiPO4 and biological toxicity analysis

For this work, a phenol solution model was treated by an advanced oxidation process (AOPs), using the heterogeneous catalyst TiO2/BiPO4 and hydrogen peroxide combined with UVA for 240 min. An annular reactor containing a UVA lamp (80 W) was employed. A central composite rotacional design was developed employing a TiO2/BiPO4 concentration of 87 mg L−1 and a hydrogen peroxide concentration of 1800 mg L−1, being evaluated by the degradation percentage and phenol mineralization percentage as responses; 94.30 and 67.00 % were obtained for the phenol degradation and total organic carbon (TOC) conversion, respectively. The lumped kinetic model (LKM) was applied and a satisfactory profile of the residual fractions of the organic compounds present in the liquid phase as a time function with a determination coefficient (R 2 = 0.9945). The toxicity tests employing microbiological species indicated that the organisms tested for the evaluation of the toxic compounds present in the contaminated samples presented a practical low cost test, rapid execution, and high sensibility as an indicator of the presence of toxic substances in liquid effluents.