Research on the treatment of azithromycin pharmaceutical wastewater by electro-Fenton with three dimensional electrode

Abstract

A three-dimensional electrode electro-Fenton system was constructed using titanium coated ruthenium iridium electrode(RuO2-IrO2/Ti) as the anode, graphite as the cathode, and activated carbon as the particle electrode. The influencing factors of three-dimensional electrode electro-Fenton treatment of azithromycin pharmaceutical wastewater were studied, and the effects of activated carbon particle electrode type and dosage on treatment efficiency were systematically investigated. The optimal reaction conditions were determined by changing factors such as electrode spacing, pH, aeration intensity, electrolysis voltage, and reaction time. The results showed that the optimal process conditions were pH=3, electrolysis voltage of 15 V, aeration intensity of 1.0 L/min, electrode spacing of 7 cm, and the reaction time of 2 hours as the particle electrode was 3 mm column carbon, with mass concentration of 100 g/L. Under these conditions, the average COD removal rate of wastewater was 72.28%, and the B/C increased from the initial 0.086 to 0.312, which resulted in the optimal treatment effect. In addition, the influence of each factor on the treatment of azithromycin pharmaceutical wastewater by three-dimensional electrode electro-Fenton was pH>aeration intensity>electrolysis voltage>reaction time>electrode spacing.

Keywords

• azithromycin pharmaceutical wastewater
• three-dimensional electrode
• eleetro-fenton
• advanced oxidation