Pretreatment by fenton oxidation of an amoxillin wastewater

Abstract

Relatively few reported works have dealt with wastewaters arising from amoxillin manufacture. To develop a treatment process for one such wastewater, several physicochemical methods such as coagulation, ultrafiltration, and Fenton oxidation (FO), have been investigated. Among these methods, FO proved effective. Consequently the method was further investigated to identify the appropriate H2 O2 FeSO4 ratio, FeSO4 and H2 O2 concentrations, and reaction pH and temperature. In relation to the wastewater, a suitable H2 O2 FeSO4 weight ratio was 5:1 (molar ratio: 22.4:1) with H2 O2 and FeSO4 concentrations at 20 gL, 4 gL, respectively. The corresponding pH range was 2.0-4.0 while the reaction temperature was 60°C. Given these conditions, wastewater total organic carbon was reduced by 48.8-49.4%. After FO treatment, reverse osmosis (RO) effectively reduced the dissolved salt content. The contribution of FO and RO pretreatment improved the wastewater's biodegradability thus making a downstream biotreatment polishing process viable. © 2008 ASCE.