Degradation of Antibiotics in Wastewater during Sonolysis, Ozonation, and Their Simultaneous Application: Operating Conditions Effects and Processes Evaluation

Pharmaceutical drugs frequently found in treated effluents, lakes and rivers, can exhibit adverse effects on aquatic organisms. The present study focuses on the application of advanced oxidation processes as ozonation (O3), sonolysis (US), and their combined application (US+O3) for the degradation o...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Vincenzo Naddeo, Daniele Ricco, Davide Scannapieco, Vincenzo Belgiorno
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Hindawi Limited 2012-01-01
Series:International Journal of Photoenergy
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/624270
Description
Summary:Pharmaceutical drugs frequently found in treated effluents, lakes and rivers, can exhibit adverse effects on aquatic organisms. The present study focuses on the application of advanced oxidation processes as ozonation (O3), sonolysis (US), and their combined application (US+O3) for the degradation of diclofenac in wastewater. Under the applied conditions, all three systems proved to be able to induce diclofenac oxidation, leading to 22% of mineralization for O3 and 36% for US process after 40 min of treatment. The synergy observed in the combined schemes, mainly due to the effects of US in enhancing the O3 decomposition, led to a higher mineralization (about 40%) for 40-minute treatment and to a significantly higher mineralization level for shorter treatment duration.
ISSN:1110-662X
1687-529X