Search results for "post‐treatment"

Removal of selected antibiotics and antiretroviral drugs during post‐treatment of municipal wastewater with UV, UV/chlorine and UV/hydrogen peroxide

2020

Active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are only partially removed by convectional wastewater treatment plants. This study aimed at assessing the post‐treatment degradation of selected antibiotics and antiretroviral drugs by direct UV photolysis and advanced oxidation processes (UV/H2O2 and UV/Cl2) using low‐pressure mercury lamp. The rate of degradation largely followed pseudo first‐order reaction kinetics. Amongst the six studied APIs, sulfamethoxazole, ciprofloxacin and zidovudine were readily degraded by more than 90% using direct UV photolysis. Addition of Cl2 and H2O2 to the UV process led to an increase in the rate of degradation for all the compounds. The effectiveness UV/Cl2 proce…