Solar photo-Fenton as finishing step for biological treatment of a pharmaceutical wastewater.

Remediation of pharmaceutical wastewater, containing nalidixic acid (NXA; 38 mg/L), a quinolone antibacterial agent commonly used in human and veterinary medicine, and characterized as having mainly 725 mg/L dissolved organic carbon (DOC), 3400 mg/L chemical oxygen demand, and around 4 g/L NaCl, was studied. A prior biodegradability study (Zahn-Wellens test) had demonstrated that the matrix was biodegradable after a rather long biomass adaptation period. After 4 days of treatment in an immobilized biomass reactor (IBR), 96% of the original DOC was removed by the biological treatment however, more than 50% of NXA was adsorbed on the biomass. As development of chronic toxicity in the IBR is possible after long exposure to NXA, adsorption and biomass stability during continuous exposure to NXA were studied in different cycles for one month. Afterthe biotreatment, the effluent was treated by solar photo-Fenton. Total degradation of NXA and reduction in toxicity were observed. The intermediates formed during degradation by biotreatment and subsequent photo-Fenton were studied by liquid chromatography-time-of-flight mass spectrometry.