The degradation of four antibiotics (ciprofloxacin (CIP), amoxicillin (AMX), sulfathiazole (STZ) and sulfamethazine (SMZ)) present in anaerobic pre-treated hospital effluent was studied. UVC irradiation of spiked effluent (200 µg L-1) resulted in between 20% (CIP) and 30% (STZ) photolysis of the different antibiotics after 15 min and more than 90% after 90 min irradiation with no removal of dissolved organic carbon (DOC). Addition of H2O2 (500 µM) and iron citrate (10 µM) enhanced significantly antibiotics degradation achieving 40-80% (15 min) and 8% DOC removal due to photolysis of antibiotics and H2O2, and photo-Fenton process. Under sunlight irradiation, significant degradation was also obtained (20-60% after 15 min), however photo-Fenton/UVC process promoted also complete inactivation of E. coli and total coliforms, not achieved under only irradiation. The results demonstrated that photo-Fenton/UVC process using low concentrations of reagents is effective for treatment of hospital effluent promoting both antibiotics degradation and inactivation of pathogenic microorganisms.

Application of photo-fenton process for the degradation of antibiotics and disinfection of anaerobic pre-treatmed hospital effluent

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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