Abstract
Vacuum ultraviolet/ultraviolet/Fenton (VUV/UV/Fenton) is considered a novel advanced oxidation process (AOP), but little is known about its kinetics for pollutant degradation in wastewater treatment. This study systematically investigates the treatment of antibiotic-containing pharmaceutical wastewater by VUV/UV/Fenton process. A significant synergistic effect was observed during the degradation of sulfachloropyridazine (SCP, an antibiotic target) by VUV/UV/Fenton. The synergistic factor was determined to be 2.13, which means a synergistic improvement of 113% for the SCP degradation by VUV/UV/Fenton compared with the separate VUV and UV/Fenton processes. The introduction of VUV strongly accelerated the reduction of Fe3+ to Fe2+ in VUV/UV/Fenton process, which was the main reason for the synergistic effect observed. The optimal pH could be extended to near-neutral at pH 6.0 in VUV/UV/Fenton process because of the highly efficient reduction of Fe3+. A low optimal ratio of Fe2+ and H2O2 (1:25) was obtained for the VUV/UV/Fenton process, indicating a high apparent catalytic efficiency of Fe2+. Dissolved oxygen and inorganic anions such as SO42–, Cl–, HCO3– and NO3– all had various influence on the SCP degradation by VUV/UV/Fenton. TOC removal efficiency of the real pharmaceutical wastewater reached as high as 63.7% after the VUV/UV/Fenton process and meanwhile, the biodegradability index (BOD/COD) increased significantly from 0.18 to 0.46. Compared with traditional Fenton process, VUV/UV/Fenton process could save as much as 45.4% of the consumption costs for the wastewater treatment. It suggests that VUV/UV/Fenton is a promising AOP for the treatment of pharmaceutical wastewater.
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Acknowledgements
This paper was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (Grant No. 2022JJ50227), Shaoyang University (CX2023SY041) and Education Department of Hunan Province (Grant No. 21B0687).
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LY contributed to visualization, investigation, reviewing and editing; FX contributed to conceptualization, original draft preparation and methodology.
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Yang, L., Xue, F. Treatment of antibiotic-containing pharmaceutical wastewater by the novel VUV/UV/Fenton process at near-neutral pH. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 21, 3889–3898 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-023-05240-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-023-05240-w