Recovery and Reuse of Acetone from Pharmaceutical Industry Waste by Solar Distillation


Por: Brito, ECT, Díaz, CEB, Córdoba, LIA, Uribe, BAF, Casados, DAS

Publicada: 1 feb 2025
Resumen:
Solvents are particularly hazardous among the mixture of pollutants found in the air, as their low vapor pressure allows them to reach the atmosphere, causing damage to ecosystems, and producing secondary deleterious effects on living organisms through a wide variety of possible reactions. In response, innovative, sustainable, and ecological methods are being developed to recover solvents from industrial wastewater, which is typically contaminated with other organic compounds. This study describes the procedure for recovering acetone from a residue from the pharmaceutical industry. This compound contains a high amount of solid organic compounds, which are generated during the manufacture of medicines. The treatment consisted of performing a simple solar distillation using a single-slope glass solar still, which separated the acetone from the mother solution. Under ideal circumstances, the use of solar radiation allowed an efficiency rate of 80% using solar concentration by means of mirrors to increase the temperature and 85% without the use of mirrors in the production of distilled acetone, which was characterized to evaluate its quality using instrumental analytical techniques: NMR, IR, and GC. The results obtained indicate that the acetone recovered by this procedure has a good quality of 84%; however, due to this percentage obtained, its reuse is limited for certain applications where a high degree of purity is required, such as its reuse for pharmaceutical use; for this reason, it was proposed to use said compound to eliminate the organic impurities contained in the catalyst waste granules used in a Mexican oil refinery. The resulting material was examined by SEM and EDS, revealing a high initial carbon content that decreased by 29% after treatment. Likewise, as an additional study, a study was carried out to evaluate the characteristics of the residues obtained at the end of the distillation where rubidium, silicon, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and chlorine contents were observed.

Filiaciones:
Brito, ECT:
 Univ Autonoma Estado Mexico, Fac Quim, Paseo Colon S-N, Toluca 50120, State Of Mexico, Mexico

Díaz, CEB:
 Univ Autonoma Estado Mexico, Fac Quim, Paseo Colon S-N, Toluca 50120, State Of Mexico, Mexico

Córdoba, LIA:
 Univ Autonoma Estado Mexico, Fac Ingn, Dept Ingn Sistemas Energet Sustentables, Cerro Coatepec S-N, Toluca 50100, State Of Mexico, Mexico

Uribe, BAF:
 Ctr Conjunto Invest Quim Sustentable UAEM UNAM, Unidad San Cayetano, Carretera Toluca Atlacomulco Km 14-5, Toluca 50200, State Of Mexico, Mexico

Casados, DAS:
 Ctr Conjunto Invest Quim Sustentable UAEM UNAM, Unidad San Cayetano, Carretera Toluca Atlacomulco Km 14-5, Toluca 50200, State Of Mexico, Mexico
ISSN: 22279717





Processes
Editorial
MDPI AG, POSTFACH, CH-4005 BASEL, SWITZERLAND, Suiza
Tipo de documento: Article
Volumen: 13 Número: 2
Páginas:
WOS Id: 001432007600001
imagen gold