Optimization of Electro-Fenton Process Efficiency for Removal of Antibiotic Tetracycline from Hospital Wastewater

In recent years, the uncontrolled and continuous entrance of hospital and pharmaceutical wastewaters to aquatic environments has led to pharmaceutical agent’s arrival in theseenvironments. Antibiotics are contaminants in the aquatic environment because they have adverse effects on the aquatic life and humans [1]. In this study, removal of tetracycline has been studied by electro-Fenton process using iron electrode. The effect of the important operationalvariables including pH solution, tetracycline antibiotic concentration, electrical conductivity, current density, H2O2 dosage and time of reaction were investigated in order to determine theprocess efficiency [2]. The results indicated that the optimum conditions for the removal of tetracycline were solution pH 9.5, tetracycline concentration 50 mg /l , Conductivity 3 mS/cm , current density 75 A/m2, and H2O2 dosage of 10 mM/min . In this condition removal tetracycline and energy consumption was found 96.1 and 22.5 kWh m3 respectively after 17 min reaction,showed in figure 1. According to the obtained results, electro-Fenton process was useful in treatment and removal of antibiotic from hospital wastewater, although economically should be investigated compared to other methods.

Keywords:

electro-Fenton , antibiotic , tetracycline , removal , hospital waste water