Study on Treatment of Pharmaceutical Wastewater Containing Copper by Using Iron-carbon Composite Particles

Fe/C composite materials were used to treat the pharmaceutical wastewater containing copper through a continuous reactor. The characters of Fe/C composite materials and the performance to berberine wastewater containing copper were investigated in details. The results showed that the berberine and Cu²⁺ concentrations in effluent were reduced from 35 and 410 mg/L to lower than 1.0 and 0.5 mg/L respectively under the conditions of hydraulic retention time of 1.0 h and the initial pH of 2.3-3.0. The Fe/C composite material could be regenerated and reused for treatment of wastewater containing copper and the effluent effect could be guaranteed. The X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) results showed that the surface structure of the regenerated composite materials and the proportion of Fe-Cu elements were consistent with those of the raw composite material before wastewater treatment. The UV-vis results showed that berberine could be effectively removed by iron-carbon composite materials.