Journal of Advances in Environmental Health Research

Journal of Advances in Environmental Health Research

Removal of Antibiotics From Hospital Wastewater Using Hybrid Chemical Purification and Batch Biological Reactor

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Fatemeh Shirmahd 1
Afshin Takdastan 2
Mahboobeh Cheraghi 1
Ali Afrous 3
Azita Koshafar 1
1 Department of Environmental Engineering, Ahvaz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz, Iran
2 Department of Environmental Health Engineering and Environmental Technologies Research Center, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran
3 Department of Water Engineering, Dezful Branch, Islamic Azad University, Dezful, Iran
10.34172/jaehr.1303
Abstract
Background: This study aimed to investigate the performance of tetracycline and amoxicillin antibiotics removal from hospital wastewater using a combination of chemical treatment and Batch biological reactor.
Methods: In this study, the effect of PS/Fe2+/UV on tetracycline and amoxicillin removal was investigated. Different parameters including pH, different concentrations of iron, antibiotics and persulfate were investigated for removal efficiency. The remaining concentration of the solution was measured using a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) device. The degree of mineralization of the process was evaluated using the chemical oxygen demand (COD) parameter. Then, the removal of tetracycline, amoxicillin and COD from the pre-treated wastewater in the batch biological reactor was investigated.
Results: The results demonstrate that the PS/Fe2+/UV process achieved complete removal of tetracycline and 97.3% removal of amoxicillin under laboratory conditions. In wastewater treatment, the process achieved a 69% reduction in tetracycline and a 67.2% reduction in amoxicillin within a 60-minute reaction time. Also, the amount of mineralization of tetracycline and amoxicillin antibiotics by PS/Fe2 + /UV process was evaluated using COD index, which resulted in removal of more than 60% of COD for both antibiotics. Also, the combination of this process and the batch biological reactor succeeded in removing 99% of BOD5 from both antibiotics and 98% of COD from real wastewater, containing 10 mg of tetracycline and amoxicillin.
Conclusion: The combined PS/Fe2 + /UV process and batch biological reactor is an efficient method. It is effective for removing antibiotics and its mineralization for wastewater treatment containing tetracycline and amoxicillin antibiotics.
Keywords
Antibiotic
Advanced purification
Discontinuous biological reactor
Tetracycline
Amoxicillin

Subjects

  1. Anastopoulos I, Pashalidis I, Orfanos AG, Manariotis ID, Tatarchuk T, Sellaoui L, et al. Removal of caffeine, nicotine and amoxicillin from (waste)waters by various adsorbents. A review. J Environ Manage. 2020;261:110236. doi: 1016/j.jenvman.2020.110236.
  2. Zhi S, Shen S, Zhou J, Ding G, Zhang K. Systematic analysis of occurrence, density and ecological risks of 45 veterinary antibiotics: focused on family livestock farms in Erhai Lake basin, Yunnan, China. Environ Pollut. 2020;267:115539. doi: 1016/j.envpol.2020.115539.
  3. Fathollahi P, Rezaei H, Sadeghi M, Namroodi S. Removal of Erythromycin Antibiotic with Modified Magnetic Oxide Nanographene from Aqueous Medium (Adsorption Kinetics). The First National Conference of Community-Oriented Researches in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment. 2021. Available from: https://civilica.com/doc/1265425/.
  4. Osińska A, Korzeniewska E, Harnisz M, Felis E, Bajkacz S, Jachimowicz P, et al. Small-scale wastewater treatment plants as a source of the dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes in the aquatic environment. J Hazard Mater. 2020;381:121221. doi: 1016/j.jhazmat.2019.121221.
  5. Sun Q, Li Y, Li M, Ashfaq M, Lv M, Wang H, et al. PPCPs in Jiulong River estuary (China): spatiotemporal distributions, fate, and their use as chemical markers of wastewater. Chemosphere. 2016;150:596-604. doi: 1016/j.chemosphere.2016.02.036.
  6. Daghrir R, Drogui P. Tetracycline antibiotics in the environment: a review. Environ Chem Lett. 2013;11(3):209-27. doi: 1007/s10311-013-0404-8.
  7. Beier S, Cramer C, Mauer C, Köster S, Schröder HF, Pinnekamp J. MBR technology: a promising approach for the (pre-)treatment of hospital wastewater. Water Sci Technol. 2012;65(9):1648-53. doi: 2166/wst.2012.880.
  8. Shahriari T, Mehrdadi N, Tahmasebi M. Study of cadmium and nickel removal from battery industry wastewater by Fe2O3 nanoparticles. Pollution. 2019;5(3):515-24. doi: 22059/poll.2018.268193.530.
  9. Mehrdadi N, Takdastan A, Khosravipour l, Nabi Bidhendi G, Taherian M. The removal of azithromycin antibiotic by advanced oxidation method of sodium persulfate activated by steel industry slag from pharmaceutical effluent. J Water Wastewater Sci Eng. 2023;8(1):29-40. doi: 22112/jwwse.2022.306832.1290.
  10. Matsubara ME, Helwig K, Hunter C, Roberts J, Subtil EL, Coelho LHG. Amoxicillin removal by pre-denitrification membrane bioreactor (A/O-MBR): performance evaluation, degradation by-products, and antibiotic resistant bacteria. Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2020;192:110258. doi: 1016/j.ecoenv.2020.110258.
  11. Bahrami Asl F, Kermani M, Farzadkia M, Esrafili A, Salahshour Arian S, Mokammel A, et al. Removal of metronidazole from aqueous solution using ozonation process. J Mazandaran Univ Med Sci. 2015;24(121):131-40. [Persian].
  12. Ghaffari Y, Mahvi A, Alimohammadi M, Nabizadeh R, Mesdaghinia A, Kazemiza L. Evaluation of Fenton process efficiency in removal of tetracycline from synthetic wastewater. J Mazandaran Univ Med Sci. 2017;27(147):291-305. [Persian].
  13. Aminivafa M, Allahabadi A, Moussavi G, Fahimi H. Removal of tetracycline antibiotic from contaminated water for using catalytic ozonation process. J Sabzevar Univ Med Sci. 2022;28(6):838-49. [Persian].
  14. Kumar A, Panda AK, Sharma N. Determination of antibiotic residues in bovine milk by HPLC-DAD and assessment of human health risks in Northwestern Himalayan region, India. J Food Sci Technol. 2022;59(1):95-104. doi: 1007/s13197-021-04988-8 .
  15. Jalali M, Attaei M, Akbari-Adergani B. Detection and evaluation of penicillin base antibiotics residue in the kidney, liver and meat of the cow distributed in Tehran’s municipal markets by using ELISA kits followed by high performance liquid chromatography. J Food Sci Technol. 2019;16(90):217-28. [Persian].
  16. Coulibaly GN, Bae S, Kim J, Assadi AA, Hanna K. Enhanced removal of antibiotics in hospital wastewater by Fe-ZnO activated persulfate oxidation. Environ Sci Water Res. 2019;5(12):2193-201. doi: 1039/c9ew00611g.
  17. Forouzesh M, Ebadi A, Aghaeinejad-Meybodi A. Degradation of metronidazole antibiotic in aqueous medium using activated carbon as a persulfate activator. Sep Purif Technol. 2019;210:145-51. doi: 1016/j.seppur.2018.07.066.
  18. Bridgewater L, Rice EW, Baird RB, Eaton AD, Clesceri LS. Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater. Washington, DC: American Public Health Association (APHA); 2012. Available from: http://www.sciepub.com/reference/226577.
  19. Taghdisian A, Tizghadam Ghazani M. Investigation of organic pollution removal efficiency in saline wastewater using by hybrid microbial growth in sequencing batch reactor. J Environ Stud. 2019;45(1):65-76. doi: 22059/jes.2019.264367.1007726. [Persian].
  20. Fathollahi P, Rezaei H, Sadeghi M, Namroodi S. Removal of cadmium ion from aqueous solutions using magnetic graphene oxide nanoparticles. Environ Water Eng. 2022;8(4):856-73. doi: 22034/jewe.2022.314764.1672. [Persian].
  21. Delavaran Shiraz A, Takdastan A, Borghei SM. Photo-Fenton like degradation of catechol using persulfate activated by UV and ferrous ions: Influencing operational parameters and feasibility studies. J Mol Liq. 2018;249:463-9. doi: 1016/j.molliq.2017.11.045.
  22. Hoseini M, Safari G, Kamani H, Jaafari J, Mahvi AH. Survey on removal of tetracycline antibiotic from aqueous solutions by nano-sonochemical process and evaluation of the influencing parameters. Iran J Health Environ. 2015;8(2):141-52. [Persian].
  23. Yazdani M, Najafpoor A, Dehghan A, Alidadi H, Dankoob M, Zangi R, et al. Performance evaluation of advanced oxidation process US/UV/H2O2 on removal of tetracycline antibiotic from aqueous solutions. J Sabzevar Univ Med Sci. 2018;25(1):143-9. [Persian].
  24. Kamani H, Hossein Panahi A, Norabadi E, Abi G. Performance evaluation of combined Ultrasonic-Persulfate processes in organic matter reduction of synthetic dairy wastewater. J Birjand Univ Med Sci. 2019;26(1):32-43. doi: 32592/JBirjandUnivMedSci.2019.26.1.104. [Persian].
  25. Kordestani B, Jalilzadeh Yengejeh R, Takdastan A, Neisi AK. A new study on photocatalytic degradation of meropenem and ceftriaxone antibiotics based on sulfate radicals: influential factors, biodegradability, mineralization approach. Microchem J. 2019;146:286-92. doi: 1016/j.microc.2019.01.013.
  26. Ahmadi M, Kakavandi B, Jorfi S, Azizi M. Oxidative degradation of aniline and benzotriazole over PAC@FeIIFe2IIIO4: a recyclable catalyst in a heterogeneous photo-Fenton-like system. J Photochem Photobiol A Chem. 2017;336:42-53. doi: 1016/j.jphotochem.2016.12.014.
  27. Tavassoli P, Bazrafshan E, Kord Mostafapour F, Maghsoodi Z, Balarak D, Kamani H, et al. Efficiency of UV activated persulfate in removal of ofloxacin from aqueous solutions. J Mazandaran Univ Med Sci. 2018;28(159):116-29. [Persian].
  28. Davari N, Farhadian M, Soleimani Nazar A. Removal of Antibiotics from Polluted Water with the Help of Advanced Oxidation Process. The First National Environment Conference. 2014. Available from: https://civilica.com/doc/279472/.
  29. Takdastan A, Torabiyan A, Azimi A. Methods for Reducing Biological Sludge Production in Wastewater Aerobic Processes. First National Conference on Water and Wastewater. Water And Wastewater Engineering Company. NOS01067. 2007. Available from: https://civilica.com/doc/13152/.
  30. Jonidi Jafari A, Farzadkia M, Gholami M, Mohagheghi M. The efficiency of composting on the degradation of antibiotic metronidazole as a pharmaceutical waste. Iran J Health Environ. 2018;11(2):271-80. [Persian].
Journal of Advances in Environmental Health Research
Volume 11, Issue 4
Summer 2023
Pages 228-236