Degradation of Lincomycin in aqueous medium: coupling of solar photocatalysis and membrane separation

Abstract The photocatalytic oxidation of a common antibiotic, the lincomycin was carried out in aqueous suspensions of polycrystalline TiO 2 Degussa P25 irradiated by sunlight. In order to improve the performance of the lincomycin degradation a hybrid system consisting of a solar photoreactor with the photocatalyst in suspension coupled with a membrane module, used to confine both photocatalyst and pollutants in the reaction environment, was tested. A preliminary study was carried out in order to determine some kinetics parameters of the drug photodegradation. The influence of initial substrate concentration on the lincomycin photooxidation rate was investigated. The photooxidation rate fol…