Antibiotic degradation and mineralization: efficiency increase on combining different chemical treatment processes

Abstract

The goal of this study was to assess the efficiency of antibiotic degradation applying different chemical treatment methods and their combinations. Thus, improvement in the efficiency of these methods when combined was quantified. The methods tested to degrade/mineralize the antibiotics amoxicillin (AMX) and ciprofloxacin (CIP) under different pH conditions (4, 7 and 10) were ultra-violet irradiation (UV_254 nm), ultrasound (US), hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and ozone (O₃) alone and in combination. The results showed that individual methods were only partially efficient in the degradation/mineralization of antibiotics, except for ozonation at alkaline pH. In the combined methods, the best performance was obtained with US/UV/H₂O₂/O₃ (pH 10, 20-min treatment), where the degradation rates for the antibiotics were 99.8% for CIP and 99.9% for AMX. For the mineralization efficiency the values obtained were 71.3% for CIP and 79.2% for AMX. The results of this study could contribute to the development and improvement of wastewater treatment aimed at avoiding the presence of residual antibiotics in the environment.

Keywords:

• Antibiotic degradation
• ciprofloxacin
• amoxicillin
• oxidation methods
• pollution control

Acknowledgments

C.M. Radetski gratefully acknowledges the CNPq – Brazil (Process 302124/2019-5) for the grant awarded. A. Dal Conti-Lampert, Otto M.S. Gerlach, and E. Sanches-Simões acknowledge CAPES – Brazil for the Doctorate and Master degree scholarships.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Declaration of competing interest

We wish to confirm that there are no known conflicts of interest associated with this publication and there has been no significant financial support for this work that could have influenced its outcome, apart from the grants funding listed in the acknowledgements.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.