Impact of various oxidation processes used for removal of sulfamethoxazole on the quality of treated wastewater

The objective of this research is to describe the impact of different advanced oxidation processes used for the removal of sulfamethoxazole on wastewater quality. Ozone, UV, a combination of ozone and UV, and plasma discharge were employed. Concentrations of sulfamethoxazole were analysed by LC-MS/MS. Chemical and microbiological analyses and ecotoxicological tests were conducted to investigate the quality of treated wastewater. The results of this study show that the most effective technique for the removal of sulfamethoxazole is O3, followed by plasma discharge, O3 + UV and, finally, UV. A significant effect of tested advanced oxidation processes on the chemical composition of wastewater was not observed; however, the number of microorganisms was reduced. In the case of ecotoxicological tests with Lemna minor and crustacean Daphnia magna, a significant negative effect was only observed when plasma was applied.

Keywords

Emerging pollutants, Sulfamethoxazole degradation, Advanced oxidation processes, Ozonation, Non-thermal plasma, UV treatment, Wastewater treatment, Liquid chromatography, Mass spectrometry, Solid phase extraction, Wastewater

Citation

Emerging Contaminants. 2023, vol. 9, issue 3, p. 1-11.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S240566502300029X

Document type

Peer-reviewed

Document version

Published version

Language of document

en

Document licence

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/