A novel antibiotic wastewater degradation technique combining cavitating jets impingement with multiple synergetic methods

Abstract

Antibiotics degradation remains a longstanding challenge in wastewater treatment. Towards this objective, we have developed a novel technique combining cavitating jets impingement with multiple synergetic methods, i.e., UV/Fenton, analogous Fenton, and photocatalytic oxidation in the present work. Three kinds of antibiotics namely amoxicillin, doxycycline and sulfadiazine sodium, are selected as model pollutants. Individual application of cavitating jets impingement is firstly conducted to evaluate the effects of jets impinging forms and nozzle inlet pressure. The effects of impingement on promoting antibiotics degradation and weakening the coalescing effects of cavitation bubbles are confirmed. Perpendicular double cavitating jets impingement is proved to be the most effective impinging form and brought a COD (chemical oxidation demand) reduction of 30.04% with the impinging effect index 1.22 at jet inlet pressure 10 MPa. Increasing the jet inlet pressure can improve the COD reduction and the effectiveness of impingement. Subsequently, UV/Fenton process is introduced to intensify the degradation process. The effects of important parameters are investigated by means of orthogonal experiments and the maximum COD reduction is up to 71.16% under the optimum conditions. Then, analogous Fenton process and photocatalytic oxidation are adopted for further enhancing the COD reduction. Different approaches used in the present work are assessed in view of multiple aspects. With COD reduction of 79.92%, the combination of cavitating jets impingement, UV/Fenton, analogous Fenton and photocatalytic oxidation is proved to be optimum method for antibiotic wastewater treatment.

On the Nature of Hydrodynamic Cavitation Process and Its Application for the Removal of Water Pollutants

“…Few reports are currently available on the use of HC to degrade antibiotics, and all of them use HC coupled with other advanced oxidation processes, such as photocatalysis, ozone, or the Fenton reaction. 20-23…”

“…Few reports are currently available on the use of HC to degrade antibiotics, and all of them use HC coupled with other advanced oxidation processes, such as photocatalysis, ozone, or the Fenton reaction. [20][21][22][23] Serna-Galvis et al 24 used ultrasonic cavitation to degrade different antibiotics in aqueous phase and reported results in the range of 40% to 85%, depending on its chemical structure. They also found that antibiotics belonging to the penicillin class degraded faster than fluoroquinolones or cephalosporin.…”

Enhanced Degradation of Sulfamethoxazole (SMX) in Toilet Wastewater by Photo-Fenton Reactive Membrane Filtration

“…Additional chemical destruction of the sulfonamides and other pharmaceuticals are often necessary for avoiding secondary pollution [14]. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) such as UV/O 3 , UV/H 2 O 2 , photocatalysis, ozonation, electrochemical oxidation, Fenton, and Fenton-like processes are commonly used to mineralize diverse recalcitrant organic pollutants including pharmaceutical pollutants [15][16][17]. Moreover, combination of AOPs and membrane filtration has gained a great deal of attention recently as AOPs show synergistic roles in membrane filtration by enhancing pollutant degradation [18,19], improving filtration performance [20], and mitigating membrane fouling [21][22][23].…”

Research on erosion characteristics of a novel cavitation nozzle under nonsubmerged condition

“…Tao et al. 6 degraded antibiotic wastewater using a cavitation jet, reducing chemical oxidation demand by 30.04%. Johnson et al.…”