Development and design of a novel advanced oxidation process for removal of antibiotic and its toxicity through wastewater effluent

Occurrence of antibiotics in wastewater has raised public awareness in potential human health and biodiversity effects. Presence of antibiotic in environment can lead to not only hazardous impacts on aquatic ecosystems, but also increases in antibiotic resistant bacteria, which can cause the highest loss of life in 2050. To remove antibiotic residual, development of wastewater treatment system from current technology is necessary. The research aims to design and develop the novel AOP (UV/chlorine process) from the conventional disinfections (i.e., chlorination and UV irradiation) for control of antibiotic residual in effluent. The kinetic removals of antibiotic by the UV/chlorine process will be investigated and compared with the standalone chlorination and the UV irradiation. Also, toxicity of treated and untreated waters will be examined. TMP will be used as a model compound since it is high frequently detected and very stable in an aquatic environment. This is the first study that attempts to provide a guideline of design and operating condition of the UV/chlorine process for the removal of antibiotic through wastewater effluent. The UV/chlorine process may provide synergistic effects on removal of targeted substances. The results obtained from this study will provide the useful information on degradation kinetics of antibiotic and its toxicity by the use of UV/chlorine process as well as standalone chlorination and UV irradiation. This information will be also very useful for design and development of the UV/chlorine process.