Abstract
This study addresses the possibility for low pressure reverse osmosis membrane (RE 2521, CSM) process to serve as an alternative to remove selected antibiotics (ampicillin and amoxicillin) from synthetic wastewater by changing operating conditions such as pH = 3, 6.5 and 10; Pressure = 9, 11 and13 (bar); antibiotic concentration = 10, 255 and 500(mg/L), and temperature = 20, 30 and 40°C. The experiment was designed based on Box-benken, which is a Response Surface methodology design (RSM), using Design Expert software. The concentration of antibiotics was measured by applying a UV-spectrophotometer (Cecil), at the wavelength of 254 nm. Results showed a range of rejection percentage from 73.52% to 99.36% and 75.1% to 98.8%, for amoxicillin and ampicillin, respectively. Considering the solute rejections and the membrane porosity show that the prevailing rejection mechanism of the examined antibiotics by the membrane was the size exclusion effect. The permeate flux for both of the antibiotics was 12–18.73 L/m2.h. Although the permeate flux and antibiotic rejection are influenced by operating pressure, pH, and temperature individually, the interaction between operating parameters did not have noticeable effects. According to the results obtained in this study, the application of RO membrane is recommended for the selected antibiotics to be removed to a considerable degree (up to 95%).
Highlights
The effluents of Pharmaceutical industries are characterized by high organic matter contents, toxicity, deep color, and high salt contents
The results of performance reverse osmosis membrane for removal of selected antibiotics samples are shown in Tables 3 and 4
Removal efficiency increased with molecular weights of the antibiotics compounds
Summary
The effluents of Pharmaceutical industries are characterized by high organic matter contents, toxicity, deep color, and high salt contents. Among all the pharmaceutical compounds that have environmental concern, antibiotics have an important role due to their high consumption rates in both veterinary and human medicine. Development of antibiotic resistant bacteria is the worst problem that may be created by the presence of antibiotics at low concentrations in the environment [1]. Antibiotics are persistent and bioaccumulative contaminants and biologically activecompounds which have been developed to have an effect on organisms; they have the potential to negatively affect either aquatic or tellurian ecosystems, even in low concentrations in the range of Depatment of Environmental Engineering, School of Public Health, Center for Water Quality Research, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Antibiotics can cause antibacterial resistance in microorganisms and be responsible for several allergenic responses [2,3,4].
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