Biodegradability Improvement of Sulfamethazine Solutions by Means of an electro-Fenton Process

Abstract

International audienceThe main objective of this study was to examine the effect of an electro-Fenton pretreatment on the biodegradability of sulfamethazine-polluted solutions. The aim of the pretreatment was only to degrade this molecule in order to increase the biodegradability of the effluent and therefore allow a subsequent biological treatment. Preliminary tests showed the absence of biodegradability of the target compound. The degradation of sulfamethazine by electro-Fenton process was then examined using a carbon felt cathode and a platinum anode in an electrochemical reactor containing 1 L of solution. The influence of some experimental parameters such as initial concentration, temperature and current intensity on the degradation by electro-Fenton step has been investigated. In addition, the biodegradability of the solution after electrochemical pretreatment was examined and showed a Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD5) on Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) ratio above the limit of biodegradability, namely 0.4, for several experimental conditions. The feasibility of coupling an electro-Fenton pretreatment with a biological degradation of by-products in order to mineralize polluted solutions of sulfamethazine was confirmed

Treatment of synthetic soil washing solutions containing phenanthrene and cyclodextrin by electro-oxidation. Influence of anode materials on toxicity removal and biodegradability enhancement

“…when HPCD completely degraded. Mansour et al (2012) [42] highlight also the same behaviour during EF degradation of sulfamethazine solutions (Pharmaceutical).…”

“…However, sometimes the process can consume too much energy, especially when the solutions are highly loaded. Thus, it is interesting to study the evolution of biodegradability in aerobic condition of treated solution in order to use electrochemical treatment as pre-treatment for a biological post-treatment [42,[44][45][46].…”

“…The most studied AOPs are Fenton [31][32][33][34][35], photo-Fenton and solar-photo-Fenton treatments [36][37][38][39][40][41]. According to our knowledge only few studies have reported the possibility to combine a biological post-process to an EF treatment [42][43][44][45][46] and an AO treatment [43,[47][48][49][50][51][52][53]. These studies are not focused on soil washing solutions, they do not deal with PAHs pollutants and BBD anode was almost not employed during AO process.…”

Scaled-up electrochemical reactor with a fixed bed three-dimensional cathode for electro-Fenton process: Application to the treatment of bisphenol A

“…Activated sludge taken from wastewater treatment of the municipality of Rennes was used as source of microorganisms. The method was described in details in previous works [15].…”

“…Moreover, electro-Fenton process has demonstrated a potential capacity of treating persistent chemical pollutants [12][13][14][15] and a recent review pointed its interest for wastewater remediation [12]. Various electrochemical cells have been used and employed for the application of electro-Fenton processes and are distinguished by their configuration (divided or undivided compartment), the nature of the cathode which must reduce oxygen in a two-electron process (Carbon-based electrodes (carbon felt, activated carbon fiber …) and gas-diffusion electrodes) and the nature of anode (BDD, PbO2, Pt…) [6,11,16].…”