Investigation on Mechanism of Tetracycline Removal from Wastewater by Sinusoidal Alternating Electro-Fenton Technique

Yihui Zhou, Bonian Hu, Xiaojie Zhuang, Jinxian Qiu, Tao Xu, Muping Zeng, Xi He and Gang Yu
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Yihui Zhou: College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
Bonian Hu: Department of Materials and Chemical Engineering, Hunan Institute of Technology, Hengyang 421008, China
Xiaojie Zhuang: Power China Zhongnan Engineering Corporation Limited, Changsha 410014, China
Jinxian Qiu: Aerospace Kaitian Environmental Technology Co., Ltd., Changsha 410100, China
Tao Xu: College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
Muping Zeng: Aerospace Kaitian Environmental Technology Co., Ltd., Changsha 410100, China
Xi He: Aerospace Kaitian Environmental Technology Co., Ltd., Changsha 410100, China
Gang Yu: College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 4, 1-16

Abstract: Sinusoidal alternating electro-Fenton (SAEF) is a new type of advanced electrochemical oxidation technology for the treatment of refractory organic wastewater. In this research, the removal performance and degradation mechanism of tetracycline (TC) were investigated, and the optimal operation parameters were determined. Scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR) were used to characterize the morphology, elemental composition, crystal structure, function groups of sludge produced by SAEF. UV-visible spectroscopy (UV) and liquid chromatograph-mass spectrometer (LC-MS/MS) were employed to determine the concentration of organic matter, middle products of decomposed organics in the SAEF process, respectively. The results showed that the removal rates of TC, chemical oxygen demand (COD), electric energy consumption (EEC) and the amount of produced sludge (Ws) are 94.87%, 82.42%, 1.383 kWh⋅m −3 and 0.1833 kg⋅m −3 by SAEF, respectively, under the optimal conditions (pH = 3.0, conductivity ( κ ) = 1075 μS⋅cm − 1 , current density ( j ) = 0.694 mA⋅cm − 2 , initial c (TC) = 100 mg·dm −3 , c [30%H 2 O 2 ] = 1.17 cm 3 ⋅dm −3 , frequency ( f) = 50 Hz, t = 120 min). Compared with pure direct electro-Fenton (DEF) or sinusoidal alternating current coagulation (SACC), SAEF was a highly effective method with low-cost for the treatment of TC wastewater. It was found that the conjugated structure of TC was destroyed to generate intermediate products, and then most of them was gradually mineralized into inorganic materials in the SAEF process.

Keywords: sinusoidal alternating electro-Fenton (SAEF); tetracycline (TC); chemical oxygen demand (COD); oxidative degradation; removal mechanism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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