Abstract
Pharmaceutical residuals are increasingly detected in natural waters, which made great threat to the health of the public. This study evaluated the utility of the photo-Fenton ceramic membrane filtration toward the removal and degradation of sulfamethoxazole (SMX) as a model recalcitrant micropollutant. The photo-Fenton catalyst Goethite (α-FeOOH) was coated on planar ceramic membranes as we reported previously. The removal of SMX in both simulated and real toilet wastewater were assessed by filtering the feed solutions with/without H2O2 and UV irradiation. The SMX degradation rate reached 87% and 92% respectively in the presence of UV/H2O2 for the original toilet wastewater (0.8 ± 0.05 ppb) and toilet wastewater with a spiked SMX concentration of 100 ppb. The mineralization and degradation by-products were both assessed under different degradation conditions to achieve deeper insight into the degradation mechanisms during this photo-Fenton reactive membrane filtration. Results showed that a negligible removal rate (e.g., 3%) of SMX was obtained when only filtering the feed solution through uncoated or catalyst-coated membranes. However, the removal rates of SMX were significantly increased to 67% (no H2O2) and 90% (with H2O2) under UV irradiation, respectively, confirming that photo-Fenton reactions played the key role in the degradation/mineralization process. The highest apparent quantum yield (AQY) reached up to approximately 27% when the H2O2 was 10 mmol·L−1 and UV254 intensity was 100 μW·cm−2. This study lays the groundwork for reactive membrane filtration to tackle the issues from micropollution.
Highlights
Pharmaceutical residuals are increasingly detected in natural waters and effluent from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) [1]
This study evaluated the utility of the photo-Fenton ceramic membrane filtration toward the removal and degradation of SMX as a model recalcitrant micropollutant
To examine the photocatalytic degradation pathways for SMX, influent and effluent samples from the photo-Fenton reactions were analyzed for degradation byproducts using liquid chromatography−electrospray ionization mass spectrometry equipped with an electrospray ionization source (ESI) or LC−ESI−MS (Agilent1290-6430, USA)
Summary
Pharmaceutical residuals are increasingly detected in natural waters and effluent from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) [1]. Human urine releases pharmaceuticals with concentrations at 2–3 orders of magnitude higher than other municipal wastewater streams that enter WWTPs [8] Pharmaceuticals such as sulfamethoxazole (SMX) are commonly prescribed to treat infectious and respiration diseases. The modified membrane increased the additional removal rate of benzophenone-3 from 28% to 34% and reduced the toxicity of degradation intermediates with a drop of EC50 by 12.77% [28] This improvement was ascribed to the surface-catalytic reactions between ozone and CuMn2O4 particles that enhanced the ozone self-decompose to generate. The TOC removal and degradation by-products were both assessed under different degradation conditions to achieve deeper insight into the degradation mechanisms during this photo-Fenton reactive membrane filtration
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