Performance evaluation of electroproxone process in degradation of ceftriaxone pharmaceutical compound from synthetic solution

Electroproxone process is a combination of ozonation process and electrolysis in which the production of hydroxyl radical and ultimately degradation of a pollutant occurs. The aim of this study was to estimate the E-Proxone process in removing ceftriaxone from a synthetic solution.

In this experimental study, a semi-continuous reactor equipped with four graphene electrodes having 2 × 10 cm dimension and 3 mm thickness was used. The effect of pH (3-11), concentration of ozone gas (1-5 mg/min), direct electric current (1-3 A), initial concentration of ceftriaxone (5-50 mg/L) and radical scavenger dose (tertbutanol = 20 mmol/L) was studied in a 0-60 minutes reaction time. The Ceftriaxone concentration was measured by HPLC, COD was measured with spectrophotometer (DR6000) and TOC with a TOC analyzer.

The results of this study indicated that this process had sufficient performance in the degradation of the antibiotic and diminishing of COD and TOC. The excellent condition was pH = 3, the electric current of 3 A, the ozone concentration of 5 mg/min, and the sodium sulfate as an electrolyte was 50 mmole/L. The ceftriaxone concentration was 5 mg/L in the duration of the 30 minutes experiment. 99.39% of the Ceftriaxone was destroyed. The process efficiency in COD and TOC removal was highest at 90 minutes. The presence of tertbutanol reduced the process efficiency to 83%.

The E-Proxone process, as one of the advanced oxidation processes, has the ability to reduce the pollution load of pharmaceutical industry, especially the ceftriaxone in this wastewater. This process is considered an environmentally friendly process.