Use of advanced Fenton and Fenton-like oxidation methods to treat wastewater containing Spiramycin antibiotic

Antibiotics are hardly decomposable and resistant contaminants in the environment that according to their anti-biological properties, it is necessary to eliminate or reduce the amount of them before entering the environment. Therefore, the main goal of this research is to investigate the Fenton and Fenton-like process efficiency for the treatment of wastewater containing Spiramycin antibiotic.

The effect of independent variables including pH, contact time, oxidant concentration (H2O2), and catalyst concentration (Fe2+ and Fe3+) on the COD removal efficiency were measured using COD meter. The ranges and number of experiments were assigned by RSM (Response surface method) using design expert software.

The optimum conditions of Fenton process with treatment efficiency of 63.31% were obtained at pH 4, hydrogen peroxide concentration of 50 mg/L, Fe2+ concentration of 75 mg/L and contact time of 5 min. The optimum conditions of Fenton-like process with treatment efficiency of 51.21% were obtained at pH 3, hydrogen peroxide concentration of 60 mg/L, Fe3+ concentration of 137.5 mg/L and contact time of 32.5 min. Based on the ANOVA analysis results, the f value in Fenton method indicates that the model is significant.

According to the results, Fenton oxidation process was selected as the optimum method to remove COD from synthetic wastewater containing Spiramycin antibiotic which may be applied as an efficient method for the treatment of wastewaters containing antibiotic.