Marfiah Ab Wahid
Universiti Teknologi MARA, MALAYSIA
Title: Removal of Antibiotics from Wastewater Using UV and UV/TiO2 Treatments
Biography
Biography: Marfiah Ab Wahid
Abstract
The occurrence of antibiotics in wastewater treatment plant has caused serious problems to the ecosystem and the environment. The emergence of antibiotics-resistant bacteria due to the release of antibiotics-contaminated water from treatment plant has become a worrying issue. This study investigated the removal of antibiotics from wastewater using UV treatments. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the removal of antibiotics from wastewater using two types of UV treatments. Four common antibiotics, namely Ciprofloxacin, Amoxicillin, Cloxacillin and Erythromycin were selected for the degradation using UV photolysis and UV/TiO2 photocatalysis at 254nm UV wavelength, 0.21mW.sec/cm2UV intensity and exposure time of 0, 3, 5, 10 and 15 minutes. The occurrence of antibiotics in influent and effluent at Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) was studied using Quadrupole Time-of-Flight Liquid Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry (Q-TOF LC/MS) and High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Q-TOF LC/MS revealed that the presence of antibiotic Erythromycin C (Macrolide) in both influent and effluent. Treatment of antibiotics using UV/TiO2photocatalysis was observed to be more efficient than UV photolysis due to the production of more OH radicals to degrade antibiotics. Removal of Ciprofloxacin, Amoxicillin, Cloxacillin and Erythromycin using UV photolysis at 15 minutes were 20.52%, 14.55%, 13.14% and 8.30%, respectively. Meanwhile, UV/TiO2photocatalysis recorded 43.23%, 37.49%, 35.22% and 27.23% respectively with increase in UV dosage (mJ/cm2). This study provides significant insight on the potential of UV treatments for the removal of antibiotics in wastewater treatment plant.