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Optimized Study and Column Experiments on Treatment Process of Metronidazole Pharmaceutical Wastewater by Microelectrolysis and Fenton Oxidation

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Abstract

One of the most important wastewater treatment processes is microelectrolysis, which is extensively used in the primary treatment of pharmaceutical wastewater. In this study, microelectrolysis, as a pretreatment method for the refractory metronidazole pharmaceutical wastewater (MPW) of choice, was improved using the Fenton process and used to remove the chemical oxygen demand (COD) and improve the biochemical capability of MPW. The results showed that the highest COD removal of 40.8% was obtained in the presence of optimized significant factors and the BI (BI = biochemical oxygen demand over five days/COD) of MPW increased from 0.10 to 0.31. In addition, the ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) spectroscopy demonstrated that metronidazole in MPW was effectively removed during the combined processes. All these results showed that microelectrolysis combined with Fenton oxidation for MPW was an effective treatment process to achieve higher COD removal and biodegradability improvement. Finally, the breakthrough curves at different flow rates were measured to prove the feasibility of the combined process under optimal conditions.

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Acknowledgments

This research was financially supported by the project of Beijing Natural Science Foundation (No. 7191008) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 11675098).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing Engineering Research Center of Radiographic Techniques and Equipment, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Yang Xiao, Yang Shao, Min Luo, Ling-ling Ma & Dian-dou Xu

  2. College of Environment and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, China

    Yang Xiao, Ming-hong Wu & Gang Xu

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  1. Yang Xiao
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  2. Yang Shao
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  3. Min Luo
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  4. Ling-ling Ma
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  7. Gang Xu
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Correspondence to Min Luo or Gang Xu.

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Xiao, Y., Shao, Y., Luo, M. et al. Optimized Study and Column Experiments on Treatment Process of Metronidazole Pharmaceutical Wastewater by Microelectrolysis and Fenton Oxidation. Water Air Soil Pollut 232, 182 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-021-05117-z

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