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

Nowadays, the contamination of water resources with antibiotics are known as one of the major pollutants in the environment due to their widespread use, toxicity, causing drug resistance, and lasting effects. This study was designed to evaluate the efficiency of the advanced oxidation process of sodium persulfate activated with steel industry slag in the presence of ultraviolet rays, solution temperature, and pH aimed at eliminating the Azithromycin antibiotic from aqueous and effluent media. In the present study, the effect of the variables, including pH, solution temperature, reaction time, initial concentration of antibiotics, sodium persulfate concentration, and UV ray intensity was examined on the process efficiency. A High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) machine was also used to measure the concentration of the Azithromycin antibiotic. According to the study results, under optimal and certain conditions in which sodium persulfate: 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 Azithromycin antibiotic, COD, and TOC were obtained as 91%, 57/4%, and 43/8%, respectively with a mineralization level higher than 55%. The rate of Azithromycin antibiotic removal was directly related to the concentrations of iron ions, sodium persulfate, UV intensity, and the temperature. However, increase in the pH from 2 to 10 led to decrease in the process efficiency from 81% to 43%, and enhance in the initial concentration of Azithromycin antibiotic from 5 to 50 mg/l also reduced the removal rate of the antibiotic from 73% to 43%. The research revealed that the advanced oxidation process of sodium persulfate activated by steel industry slag in the presence of ultraviolet rays can be used as a proper method with high efficiency to eliminate the high concentration of antibiotics found in a real sewage sample.