Degradation of amoxicillin in aqueous solution using sulphate radicals under ultrasound irradiation

Degradation of the antibiotics amoxicillin in aqueous solution using sulphate radicals under ultrasound irradiation was investigated. The preliminary studies of optimal degradation methodology were conducted with only oxone (2KHSO₅·KHSO₄·K₂SO₄), cobalt activated oxone (oxone/Co²⁺), oxone + ultrasonication (oxone/US) and cobalt activated oxone + ultrasonication (oxone/Co²⁺/US). The chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency were in the order of oxone < oxone/Co²⁺ < oxone/US < oxone/Co²⁺/US for the amoxicillin solution. The variables considered for the effect of degradation were the temperature, the power of ultrasound, the concentration of oxone, as well as catalyst and the initial amoxicillin concentration. More than 98% of COD removal was achieved within 60 min under optimum operational conditions. Comparative analysis revealed that the sulfate radicals had the high oxidation potential and the use of ultrasound irradiation reduced the energy barrier of the reaction and increased the COD removal efficiency of organic pollutants. The degradation of amoxicillin follows the first-order kinetics.     

Degradation of Acid Orange 7 in aqueous solution by zero-valent aluminum under ultrasonic irradiation

Degradation of azo dye Acid Orange 7 (AO7) by zero-valent aluminum (ZVAl) in combination with ultrasonic irradiation was investigated. The preliminary studies of optimal degradation methodology were conducted with sole ultrasonic, sole ZVAl/air system, ultrasonication + ZVAl/air system (US-ZVAl). In ZVAl/air system, the degradation of AO7 could almost not be observed within 30 min. The degradation of AO7 by ZVAl/air system was obviously enhanced under ultrasound irradiation, and the enhancement is mainly attributed to that the production of hydroxyl radicals in ultrasound-ZVAl process was much higher than that in sole ultrasonic or in sole ZVAl/air system. The variables considered for the effect of degradation were the power of ultrasound, the initial concentration of AO7, as well as the initial pH value and the dosage of zero-valent aluminum. The results showed that the decolorization rate increased with the increase of power density and the dosage of ZVAl, but decreased with the increase of initial pH value and initial concentration of AO7. More than 96% of AO7 removal was achieved within 30 min under optimum operational conditions (AO7: 20 mg/L, ZVAl: 2 g/L, pH: 2.5, ultrasound: 20 kHz, 300 W). This study demonstrates that ultrasound-ZVAl process can effectively decolorize the azo dye AO7 in wastewater.     

Decolorization of azo dye Orange G by aluminum powder enhanced by ultrasonic irradiation

In this work, the decolorization of azo dye Orange G (OG) in aqueous solution by aluminum powder enhanced by ultrasonic irradiation (AlP-UI) was investigated. The effects of various operating operational parameters such as the initial pH, initial OG concentration, AlP dosage, ultrasound power and added hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) concentration were studied. The results showed that the decolorization rate was enhanced when the aqueous OG was irradiated simultaneously by ultrasound in the AlP-acid systems. The decolorization rate decreased with the increase of both initial pH values of 2.0–4.0 and OG initial concentrations of 10–80 mg/L, increased with the ultrasound power enhancing from 500 to 900 W. An optimum value was reached at 2.0 g/L of the AlP dosage in the range of 0.5–2.5 g/L. The decolorization rate enhanced significantly by the addition of hydrogen peroxide in the range of 10–100 mM to AlP-UI system reached an optimum value of 0.1491 min⁻¹. The decolorization of OG appears to involve primarily oxidative steps, the cleavage of NN bond, which were verificated by the intermediate products of OG under the optimal tested degradation system, aniline and 1-amino-2-naphthol-6,8-disulfonate detected by the LC–MS.     

Degradation of diclofenac during sonolysis, ozonation and their simultaneous application

Diclofenac is a widely used anti-inflammatory non-steroidal drug that escapes conventional urban wastewater treatment trains because of its resistance to biodegradation. Therefore it is frequently found in treated effluents, lakes and rivers. It has been reported that diclofenac can exhibit adverse effects on aquatic organisms. Advanced oxidation processes like ozonation (O₃) and sonolysis (US) can be employed for the removal of such recalcitrant compounds from water matrices. This study included the investigation of the efficiency of O₃ and US and also of their combined application (US + O₃) for the degradation and potential mineralization of diclofenac in a water matrix. Under the conditions applied, all three systems proved to be effective in inducing diclofenac oxidation, leading to 22% of mineralization for O₃ and 36% for US after 40 min of treatment. The synergy observed in the combined schemes, mainly due to the effects of US in enhancing the O₃ decomposition, led to higher mineralization (about 40%) for 40 min treatment, and to a significantly higher mineralization level for shorter treatment duration.     

Decolorizing of azo dye Reactive red 24 aqueous solution using exfoliated graphite and H2O2 under ultrasound irradiation

At its natural pH (6.95), the decolorization of Reactive red 24 in ultrasound, ultrasound/H₂O₂, exfoliated graphite, ultrasound/exfoliated graphite, exfoliated graphite/H₂O₂ and ultrasound/exfoliated graphite/H₂O₂ systems were compared. An enhancement was observed for the decolorization in ultrasound/exfoliated graphite/H₂O₂ system. The effect of solution pH, H₂O₂ and exfoliated graphite dosages, and temperature on the decolorization of Reactive red 24 was investigated. The sonochemical treatment in combination with exfoliated graphite/H₂O₂ showed a synergistic effect for the decolorization of Reactive red 24. The results indicated that under proper conditions, there was a possibility to remove Reactive red 24 very efficient from aqueous solution.

The decolorization of other azo dyes (Reactive red 2, Methyl orange, Acid red 1, Acid red 73, Acid red 249, Acid orange 7, Acid blue 113, Acid brown 75, Acid green 20, Acid yellow 42, Acid mordant brown 33, Acid mordant yellow 10 and Direct green 1) was also investigated, at their natural pH.     

Intensification of Red-G dye degradation used in the dyeing of alpaca wool by advanced oxidation processes assisted by hydrodynamic cavitation

Red-G dye is one of the main dyes used in the textile industry to dye alpaca wool. Therefore, considering the large volume of processed wool in Perú, the development of efficient technologies for its removal is a present scientific issue. In this study, an integrated system based on hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) and photo-Fenton process was evaluated to remove the Red-G dye. Using a hybrid cavitation device (venturi + orifice plate), the effect of pH was evaluated, achieving 21 % of removal at pH 2 which was more than 80 % higher compared to pH 4 and 6. The effect of temperature was also evaluated in HC-system at pH 2, where percentage of dye degradation increased at lower temperatures (around 20 °C). Then, 50.7 % of dye was removed under optimized condition of HC-assisted Fenton process (FeSO₄:H₂O₂ of 1:30), that value was improved strongly by UV-light incorporation in the HC-system, increasing to 99 % removal efficiency with respect to HC-assisted Fenton process and reducing the time to 15 min. Finally, the developed cavitation device in combination with photo-Fenton process removed efficiently the dye and thus could be considered an interesting option for application to real wastewater.     

Degradation of C.I. Acid Orange 7 by the advanced Fenton process in combination with ultrasonic irradiation

The combination of ultrasound and the advanced Fenton process (AFP, zero-valent iron and hydrogen peroxide) for the degradation of C.I. Acid Orange 7 was studied. The effect of hydrogen peroxide concentration, initial pH, ultrasonic power density, dissolved gas, and iron powder addition on the decolorization of C.I. Acid Orange 7 was investigated. A modified pseudo-first order kinetic model was used to simulate the experimental results. The results showed that the decolorization rate increased with the increase of hydrogen peroxide concentration and power density, but decreased with the increase of initial pH value. There existed an optimal iron powder addition when decolorization rate was concerned. The decolorization efficiency also increased with the increase of hydrogen peroxide concentration, but decreased with the increase of initial pH value. It varied little at different power densities or iron powder additions at the fixed hydrogen peroxide concentration. The presence of dissolved gas would enhance color removal, and the enhancement was more significant when dissolved oxygen was present. More hydrogen peroxide dosage and reaction duration are required to achieve a relatively high COD removal than those employed to simply break the chromophore group.