The Removal of Tetracycline Antibiotic by Advanced Oxidation Method of Sodium Monopersulfate Activated by Steel Industry Slag from Pharmaceutical Effluent

Today, antibiotics are known as one of the major environmental pollutants, particularly of water, due to their widespread use, toxicity, causing drug resistance and their lasting effects. This study was designed to evaluate the efficiency of the advanced oxidation process of sodium monopersulfate activated with steel industry slag in the presence of ultraviolet rays aimed at eliminating the tetracycline antibiotic from aqueous and effluent media. We examined the effect of the variables of pH, solution temperature, reaction time, initial concentration of antibiotics, sodium monopersulfate concentration, and the UV ray intensity on the process efficiency. A high-performance liquid chromatography machine was used to measure the concentration of the tetracycline antibiotic. According to the study results, under optimal and certain conditions (sodium monopersulfate: 2 mM, pH: 2, iron ions level in the steel industry slag: 0.4 g/L, UV intensity: 8 watts) and during 60 minutes, the elimination efficiency rates of tetracycline antibiotic, COD, and TOC were obtained as 98%, 61.8%, and 48.9%, respectively, with a mineralization level higher than 55%. The rate of tetracycline antibiotic removal was directly related to the concentrations of iron ions, sodium monopersulfate, UV intensity, and the temperature, while increasing the pH from 2 to 10 decreased the process efficiency from 98% to 46%; and enhancing the initial concentration of tetracycline antibiotic from 5 to 50 mg/L also reduced the removal rate of the antibiotic from 86% to 47%. The research revealed that the advanced oxidation process of sodium monopersulfate activated by steel industry slag in the presence of ultraviolet rays can be used as a proper method with effective efficiency to eliminate the high concentration of antibiotics found in a real sewage sample.