Study of a photocatalytic process for removal of antibiotics from wastewater in a falling film photoreactor: Scavenger study and process intensification feasibility

Abstract

International audienceThis study focused on the removal of antibiotic by coupling of heterogeneous photocatalysis with ozonation and hydrogen peroxide. The main objective was to intensify the efficiency of photocatalytic activity for better and faster antibiotic elimination/mineralization in wastewater. To fulfill this purpose a photocatalytic process based on falling film reactor was designed and optimized. The effects of operating parameters such as wastewater flow rate in the falling film reactor, the presence of an oxidizing agent (H2O2 and O3), inlet concentrations, including catalyst dosage and light intensity were investigated and discussed. Experiments were mainly conducted with Flumequine and Clarithromycin. The first molecule (Flumequine) will serve as an example of fluoroquinolone antibiotics and the second (Clarithromycin) as an example of macrolide antibiotics. Experimentally, the results have shown interesting degradation and mineralization efficiency (on the order of 94% for degradation and 76% for mineralization). Evidence for redox catalysis was shown using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) before and after pollutant degradation. Moreover, special attention was also paid to identify the reaction products and the plausible degradation pathway during Flumequine degradation

Artificial neural network modeling of cefixime photodegradation by synthesized CoBi2O4 nanoparticles

“…Most of the conventional approaches that are commonly used for the removal of antibiotics have no positive findings for the degradation of antibiotic residues from contaminated waters or have substantial inconveniences such as by-products of the degradation (Xiong et al 2018;Zhu et al 2018;Zhang et al 2020). On the other hand, Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) have proven to be an effective solution for the rapid degradation of non-biodegradable substances in polluted water (Lou et al 2017;Aboudalle et al 2018;Kamagate et al 2018). Particularly, the Heterogeneous photocatalysis process which is one of the best approaches for aqueous environment treatment as it is safer and a natural technology (used green energy).…”

Photocatalytic degradation of binary and ternary mixtures of antibiotics: reactive species investigation in pilot scale

“…Recently, Kamagate et al [16] reported that some antibiotics such as flumequine, norfloxacin and ciprofloxacin could be degraded simultaneously by heterogeneous photo-Fenton process using laterite as catalyst. In the case of photocatalysis, most of the researchers have assessed the performance of removal within mono-compound systems [17][18][19]. Otherwise, a diversity of hazardous pollutants with different concentrations coexists in the real effluents.…”

Mechanisms and adsorption capacities of biochar for the removal of organic and inorganic pollutants from industrial wastewater

“…However, most of these processes require high operational and capital costs. This has been considered as the main obstacle that restricts their application for the abatement/removal of potentially toxic contaminants from polluted waters in developed and developing countries (Giannakis et al 2017;Villegas-Guzman et al 2017;Lou et al 2017;Ambaye et al 2020).…”