Biodegradability Improvement of Antibiotics Aqueous Solution by Fenton Process

Antibiotics wastewater has high COD and very low BOD5, and hence is difficult to treat biologically. This paper aims at studying the effect of operating conditions (H2O2/COD molar ratios, H2O2/ Fe2+ molar ratios, pH, antibiotics concentration and reaction time) of Fenton process on biodegradability improvement of amoxicillin, ampicillin and cloxacillin aqueous solution. In addition, study the fate and degradation of amoxicillin, ampicillin and cloxacillin by Fenton process under optimum conditions. The maximum BOD5/COD for treatment of antibiotics aqueous solution contains 104, 105 and 103 mg/L amoxicillin, ampicillin, and cloxacillin by Fenton process were observed at H2O2/COD molar ratio 3:1, H2O2/Fe2+ molar ratio 10:1 and pH 3.0 and reaction time 10 minutes. The antibiotics concentration has great effect on the BOD5/COD ratio. The maximum BOD5/COD achieved in 10, 20 and 40 minutes at antibiotics concentration 100, 250 and 500 mg/L for each antibiotic in the aqueous solution. Under optimum operating conditions, complete degradation of amoxicillin, ampicillin and cloxacillin was achieved in 2 minutes. In addition, biodegradability improved from 0.03 to 0.37 and COD degradation was 71.9%. Finally, the Fenton process can be used as a pretreatment system to improve the biodegradability of amoxicillin, ampicillin and cloxacillin aqueous solution.