Evaluation of Advanced Oxidation Process (H2O2/MgO) in Metronidazole Removal from Aqueous Solutions

Medications are of special importance in the treatment of human and veterinary diseases and the introduction of various types of antibiotics into sewage as well as wastewater has been known as the most important source of antibiotic entry into the environment. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of various parameters on the removal of metronidazole by the advanced oxidation process (H2O2 / MgO) from aqueous media.

This experimental study was carried out in a closed system and the effects of parameters such as pH (11, 9, 7, 5, 3), molar ratios of H2O2 / MgO (5, 3, 1.5, 1), initial concentration of metronidazole mg / L (80, 60, 40, 20), and reaction time (100, 80, 60, 40, 20 minutes) were investigated on the efficiency of metronidazole removal by advanced oxidation process.

The results of this study indicated that the advanced oxidation process (H2O2 / MgO) could remove 84.98% of metronidazole from aqueous media at an optimum pH of 3, a reaction time of 40 minutes, a metronidazole concentration of 20 mg per liter, and a molar ratio of H2O2 / MgO equivalent to 3, while the removal of metronidazole followed first-order kinetics (R2 = 0.958).

The results have shown that the use of advanced refining processes in combination (magnesium oxide nanoparticles in the presence of hydrogen peroxide) can be effective in the removal of metronidazole from aqueous solutions, and the efficiency of removal by this method is inversely correlated with pH and metronidazole concentration, while it shows a direct relationship with exposure time and molar ratio.