PMMA-titania floating macrospheres for the photocatalytic remediation of agro-pharmaceutical wastewater

Antibiotics such as tetracycline are used on a large scale in agriculture, and can become concentrated in wastewater lagoons that are used in conjunction with confined animal feeding operations. Solar-illuminated titanium dioxide can be used to photocatalytically degrade aqueous tetracycline, but it...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Water science and technology 2017-03, Vol.75 (5-6), p.1362-1369
Main Authors: Hartley, Adam C, Moss, Joseph B, Keesling, Jr, Kyle J, Moore, Nathanael J, Glover, Justin D, Boyd, Joel E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acrylates - chemistry
Agricultural wastes
Agriculture
Animals
Antibiotics
Biodegradation, Environmental - radiation effects
Catalysis - radiation effects
Composite materials
Design
Drug resistance
Environmental science
Feeding
Floating
Illumination
Lagoons
Light
Livestock
Medical wastes
Pharmaceutical industry wastes
Pharmaceutical Preparations - analysis
Pharmaceuticals
Photobiology
Photocatalysis
Photochemistry
Physical chemistry
Polyethylene
Polymethyl methacrylate
Polymethyl Methacrylate - chemistry
Polymethylmethacrylate
Porosity
Remediation
Silver - chemistry
Spheres
Tetracycline - analysis
Time Factors
Titanium
Titanium - chemistry
Titanium dioxide
Waste Water - chemistry
Wastewater
Wastewater lagoons
Wastewater treatment
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Summary:Antibiotics such as tetracycline are used on a large scale in agriculture, and can become concentrated in wastewater lagoons that are used in conjunction with confined animal feeding operations. Solar-illuminated titanium dioxide can be used to photocatalytically degrade aqueous tetracycline, but its application in a lagoon environment requires that the photocatalyst be supported on a macroscopic support material to prevent loss of the nanoscale photocatalyst into the environment. In this work, titanium dioxide was deposited within a porous poly(methyl methacrylate) film on the surface of floating 7.0 cm diameter acrylic spheres. Six of these floating spheres removed over 96% of the tetracycline in 3.5 L of 60 mg/L tetracycline in natural pond water during 24 hours of solar illumination. The durability of these spheres under long-term solar exposure was also investigated along with the amount of photocatalyst lost from the sphere surface during use. These macroscale floating composite spheres provide a new method for removing tetracycline from wastewater lagoons with minimal risk of being displaced in the environment due to the large size of the spheres.
ISSN:0273-1223
1996-9732
DOI:10.2166/wst.2017.003