Utilization of Activated Carbon Catalyzed Ozonation (ACCO) for Removal of Ciprofloxacin and Vancomycin from Hospital Wastewater

Hospital wastewater is considered by health and environmental researchers due to the presence of various hazardous chemical contaminants such as residual of antibiotics and other drugs. The conventional treatment processes are not able to complete removal of them, and could lead to the entry of these compounds into the environment. Then, we aimed to analyze and evaluate the removal of ciprofloxacin and vancomycin antibiotics from hospital wastewater.

The effect of antibiotic concentration and reaction time was investigated on the performance of single ozonation (SOZ) and activated carbon catalyzed ozonation (ACCO). In addition, COD and BOD of the effluent, antibiotics degradation kinetics and mathematical modeling were determined. Solid phase extraction columns (SPE) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) methods were used to extract and measure the intended antibiotics, respectively.

The results of this study showed that degradation of both antibiotics follow pseudo-first order kinetic. SOZ was able to eliminate 6 mg/L of vancomycin and ciprofloxacin within 45 and 65 min, respectively. Due to the synergistic effect of activated carbon on ozonation, ACCO significantly reduced the degradation time to 20 and 25 minutes, respectively. BOD/COD ratio at the outlet of ACCO process increases from 0.2 in raw wastewater to 0.4 in treated wastewater, which could be appropriate for biological treatment.

ACCO could be considered an efficient process for degradation of antibiotics in hospital wastewater.