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Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering

ISSN 2095-2201

ISSN 2095-221X(Online)

CN 10-1013/X

Postal Subscription Code 80-973

2018 Impact Factor: 3.883

Front Envir Sci Eng Chin    2011, Vol. 5 Issue (3) : 481-487    https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-011-0341-3
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Achieving biodegradability enhancement and acute biotoxicity removal through the treatment of pharmaceutical wastewater using a combined internal electrolysis and ultrasonic irradiation technology
Liang SUN, Can WANG(), Min JI(), Fen WANG
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
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Abstract

Actual pharmaceutical wastewater was treated using a combined ultrasonic irradiation (US) and iron/coke internal electrolysis (Fe/C) technology. A significant synergetic effect was observed, showing that ultrasonic irradiation dramatically enhanced the chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiencies by internal electrolysis. The effects of primary operating factors on COD removal were evaluated systematically. Higher ultrasonic frequency and lower pH values as well as longer reaction time were favorable to COD removal. The ratio of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and COD (B/C) of the wastewater increased from 0.21 to 0.32 after US-Fe/C treatment. An acute biotoxicity assay measuring the inhibition of bioluminescence indicated that the wastewater with overall toxicity of 4.3 mg-Zn2+·L-1 was reduced to 0.5 mg-Zn2+·L-1 after treatment. Both the raw and the treated wastewater samples were separated and identified. The types of compounds suggested that the increased biodegradability and reduced biotoxicity resulted mainly from the destruction of N,N-2 dimethyl formamide and aromatic compounds in the pharmaceutical wastewater.

Keywords internal electrolysis      ultrasonic      pharmaceutical wastewater      biodegradability      acute biotoxicity     
Corresponding Author(s): WANG Can,Email:wangcan@tju.edu.cn; JI Min,Email:jimin@tju.edu.cn   
Issue Date: 05 September 2011
 Cite this article:   
Liang SUN,Can WANG,Min JI, et al. Achieving biodegradability enhancement and acute biotoxicity removal through the treatment of pharmaceutical wastewater using a combined internal electrolysis and ultrasonic irradiation technology[J]. Front Envir Sci Eng Chin, 2011, 5(3): 481-487.
 URL:  
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/10.1007/s11783-011-0341-3
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/Y2011/V5/I3/481
COD/(mg·L-1)BOD5/(mg·L-1)BOD5/CODacute biotoxicity/(mg-Zn2+·L-1)pH
5000-90001050-15000.18-0.254.0-5.04-5
Tab.1  Characteristics of the pharmaceutical wastewater samples
Fig.1  COD removal using standalone US, standalone Fe/C, and US-Fe/C technologies
Fig.2  COD removal under different ultrasonic frequencies
Fig.3  COD removal under various initial pH levels of the wastewater
Fig.4  COD removal under different reaction times
Fig.5  Biodegradability enhancement of wastewater by Fe/C and US-Fe/C technologies
Fig.6  Acute biotoxicity removal in wastewater samples using Fe/C and US-Fe/C technologies
Fig.7  GC-MS of the main compounds: (a) raw water; (b) treated water by Fe/C; (c) treated water by US-Fe/C
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