Degradation of tetracycline by combining hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) and persulfates (PS)

Abstract

The ecological and human health risks caused by the overuse of antibiotics have aroused widespread concern. Due to the characteristics of antibiotics themselves, they cannot be effectively removed by traditional treatment methods. HC is considered as a new and innovative chemical process enhancement technique. which exhibits remarkable efficiency in degrading stubborn organic pollutants, and can effectively cooperate with various physical and chemical methods. In this study, the hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) technology was used to activate peroxymonosulfate (PMS) and peroxodisulfate (PDS) to produce strong oxidizing active substances (SO4-•) to degrade tetracycline (TC) wastewater with an initial concentration of 30 mg/L. The results show that a positive relationship between the degradation efficiency of TC and both the inlet pressure as well as the dose of PS applied. HC can enable full activation of PMS and PS, the max synergistic index of HC-PMS and HC-PDS was 1.72 and 24.81, respectively. Therefore, the HC-PS system can provide a novel technical route for the treatment of antibiotic wastewater. © 2024 Institute of Physics Publishing. All rights reserved.