Detoxification and biodegradability enhancement of antibiotic production wastewater by hybrid process of resin adsorption and Fenton oxidation

Antibiotic production wastewater exhibits high concentration of antibiotics and toxic intermediates, which would pose a serious threat to the ecological environment. The biodegradation methods are prevailing for this wastewater. However, it imposes a considerable toxic burden on biological treatment units in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), ultimately resulting in subpar treatment efficacy. For improving the biodegradability of antibiotic production wastewater, hybrid process of resin adsorption and Fenton oxidation was proposed. The adsorption experiments showed that NDA-150 exhibited removal rates of up to 99.1% and 94.8% for two key pollutants 8-hydroxyquinoline (8HQ) and o-aminophenol (OAP), respectively. The constant removal rates demonstrated stable performance and capacity of NDA-150 for practical industrial operation. The remaining high COD due to other organic contaminants in the effluent required the involvement of Fenton oxidation for the further processing. The results of single factor experiments and orthogonal tests showed that the COD removal rate of 56.5% could be realized under the optimal operating conditions. This work proposed a novel process which could alleviate obstacles between the antibiotic manufacture factories and biological treatment units, shed light on the mechanisms and feasibility of it, and provide a promising avenue for the toxicant organic industrial sewage.