Advanced treatment of cephalosporin pharmaceutical wastewater by nano-coated electrode and perforated electrode

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the degradation of nonbiodegradable organic pollutants in biologically cephalosporin pharmaceutical wastewater using different electrodes such as non-nano-scale electrode (traditional coated), nano-scale (nano-coated) electrode, and perforated electrode after biotreatment. The traditional coated electrode plate, nano-coated electrode plate, and two different perforated titanium dioxide (TiO₂) electrode plates with an average pore size of 10 μm and 20 μm were chosen as the anode. The results demonstrated that traditional coated electrode, nano-scale electrode, and perforated electrode could effectively remove nonbiodegradable organic pollutants from pharmaceutical wastewater. The perforated electrode with an average pore size of 10 μm exhibited the best degradation effect with a 90 % decrease in the chemical oxygen demand (COD) (COD content reduced from 320 mg L⁻¹ to 32 mg L⁻¹). During catalytic degradation, the electrical conductivity of pharmaceutical wastewater increased and the pH increased and finally reached equilibrium. It was also found that the perforated TiO₂ electrode produced relatively large amounts of dissolved oxygen during the catalytic oxidation process, reaching above 4 mg L⁻¹, whereas the nano-coated electrode produced little dissolved oxygen. The biotoxicities of all wastewater samples increased firstly then decreased slightly during the electrical catalytic oxidation, but the final biotoxicities were all higher than initial ones.

Keywords:

• Cephalosporin pharmaceutical wastewater
• nano-coated electrode
• biotoxicity
• perforated electrode