AccScience Publishing / AJWEP / Volume 13 / Issue 4 / DOI: 10.3233/AJW-160041
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Improvement of the Overall Biodegradability of  Ciprofloxacin by Pre-treatment with Photocatalytic  Oxidation of Wastewaters

Nevim Genç1*
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1 Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kocaeli University, 41380, Kocaeli, Turkey
AJWEP 2016, 13(4), 75–81; https://doi.org/10.3233/AJW-160041
Submitted: 30 June 2015 | Revised: 16 September 2016 | Accepted: 16 September 2016 | Published: 13 October 2016
© 2016 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
Abstract

In this study, photocatalytic degradation of ciprofloxacin (CIP) was investigated. CIP is a widely used quinolone antibiotic. Removal of CIP in the dark is negligible. The removal efficiency by photolysis of CIP was
25.3%. The removal efficiencies after 30 min irradiation were 85%, 93.5% and 97% at pH values 3, 6 and 9 in the presence of 0.5 g/L TiO2, respectively. Modified form of the Langmuir-Hinshelwood equation has been successful as a quantitive model to describe solid-liquid interactions. Kinetic constant k is reactivity constant, K is the adsorption equilibrium constant and kap (kK) is the apparent first order reaction constant, these were determined as 0.673 mg/L min, 0.662 L/mg and 0.445 (1/min), respectively. The results showed that after 30 min irradiation of CIP, solution was degraded 95%, whereas COD removed was 40.3%. The enhancement of biodegradability, evaluation in terms of the BOD5/COD ratio, increased from 0.043 to 0.403. This increase is not sufficient for treatment in conventional activated sludge unit. Additionally, the biodegradability of CIP photo-transformation products was assessed by BOD test. k (1/d), BOD reaction rate constants were determined as 0.0857 (1/d) and 0.1778 (1/d) for untreated and treated CIP solution, respectively.

Keywords
Biodegradability
Ciprofloxacin
Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetic
photocatalytic oxidation
Conflict of interest
The authors declare they have no competing interests.
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Asian Journal of Water, Environment and Pollution, Electronic ISSN: 1875-8568 Print ISSN: 0972-9860, Published by AccScience Publishing