Background: Antibiotics are considered important and integral parts of modern life, and are widely used for treating human and animal illnesses, in medicine and veterinary medicine. However, they can cause environmental pollution and may lead to increased bacterial resistance even at low concentrations. Methods: In this study, Ampicillin degradation from β-lactam antibiotic family was studied, using a surface methodology consisting of ultraviolet radiation (254 nm) and H2 O2 Oxidation Process in an 8-watt Pyrex reactor. The variables used included the reaction time (30-60 min), Ampicillin concentration (5-25 mg/l), H2 O2 concentration (5-25 mg/l), and pH range of 3-9 at three alpha levels of-1, 0 and +1. Results: The data were analyzed by the analysis of variance test (ANOVA), while the validity was evaluated using regression coefficients. The optimum condition for Ampicillin degradation followed a linear model, at a 60-min. reaction time and pH 3, the Ampicillin (5mg/l) and hydrogen peroxide (25mg/l) provided the maximum antibiotic removal efficiency (82%). Conclusion: The results suggest a positive and significant effect for the antibiotic concentration and a negative effect for the pH. The Ampicillin concentration with a coefficient of 8. 91 had the highest impact on the efficiency of the removal Process. Therefore, antibiotic pollution in the environment can be reduced through the UV-H2 O2 Process, so as to protect human health from the associated hazards.

Continuous population growth and enhancement of human life have led to an increase in waste production. Thus, waste management has become a problem of many countries. Over recent years, organic wastes management policies have been increasingly tending toward recycling. Compost Process is widely applied to transform wastes into fertilizers, in which leachate management is a problem due to its adverse effects on the environment and human health. Control, collection, disposal, and treatment of leachate requires a special attention to prevent soil, surface and ground water contamination. The leachate contains toxic organic compounds and phenolic compounds. The first are resistant to biodegradation, nitrogen, aromatic and the latter threats human and aquatic life. This is why the leachate requires chemical treatment including Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs). Combining UV radiation by the hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is one of the Advanced Oxidation Processes. During photolysis, UV radiation directly breaks down a complicated compound to more simple ones, by more energy than the compound binding energy. High energy cnsumption enhances the costs of this method. So it can be improved economically by controling parameters including pH and UV contact time that affect Oxidation Process.The leachate effluent was prepared from composting plant, Golestan, Iran. The leachate was characterized immediately after transferring to the lab. Furthermore, samplings were carried out three times to measure COD, BOD, total suspended solids (TSS), and turbidity of the stored samples. Total nitrogen contents of unviable cells were analyzed by Kjeldahl determination (2300 Kjettec Analyzer Unit, Foss Tecator, Sweden). The RSM approach used in the present study was under a CCD approach including four independent variables; initial pH, H2O2 and UV contact time. The design consisted of 2k factorial points augmented by 2k axial points and a center point where k is the number of variables. The two operating variables were considered at three levels; low (-1), central (0) and high (+1). With the RSM approach, ANOVA was carried out for a second-order response surface model. The significance of each coefficient was determined by the F -values and the values of probability (prob>F). The larger the magnitude of the F -value and the smaller the p -value, the more significant the corresponding coefficients. Values of ‘ prob>F’, less than 0.0500, also indicate highly significant regression at a 95% confidence level. A total number of 20 experimental runs was set.Optimal condition obtained for H2O2/UV Process were of initial pH 7.5, hydrogen peroxide of 2.3 mL/L, and UV-contact time of 95 min. In these conditions, the removal rates of COD and color and turbidity for H2O2/UV Process were 12.32%, 20.83%, and 8.68 NTU, respectively. The RSM applied in this study can present the effects of the operating variables as well as their interactive effects on the responses. In the present study, most effective factors on the Advanced Oxidation Process including pH, hydrogen peroxide dosage and UV-contact time were tested. The results indicated that the H2O2/UV Process has been successful in reducing turbidity but not in COD removal efficiency.

Diclofenac (DCF) is among the compounds that are highly resistant to biological degradation Processes and have low removal efficiency in wastewater treatment plants. In the current study, DCF removal was examined by using the O3/UV/S2O8 Process. All experiments were carried out in a 2-liter lab-scale semi-continuous reactor. DCF concentration was measured by HPLC analytical method. The study began with the optimization of pH, and the effects of other operating parameters, including pH, ozone concentrations, drug, persulfate, and natural organic matter (Humic acid) on the degradation were investigated. The mineralization of diclofenac was also investigated. The results showed the removal efficiency of 89% and a persulfate concentration of 200 mg/L, pH = 6, DCF = 8 mg/L, and reaction periods 30 min in the O3/UV/S2O8 Process. Humic acid was selected as a scavenging compound, which decreased the removal DCF rate from 89% to 76%. So, sulfate radical-based technologies show promising results for the removal of these particular pharmaceuticals from the wastewater treatment plant.

Background and Aim: Municipal landfill leachate has pollutant and refractory matters. Advanced oxygen procrsses (AOPs) are one of the wastewater treatment methods which have refractory matters. The aim of this research was to evaluate the effect of ultrasound as AOP and ultrasound and H2O2 simultaneously on reduction of leachate organic load and VSS: FSS ratio. Materials and Methods: This was an experimental study. In the first stage, organic matters are determined in raw leachate collected randomly. Then samples are sonicated in an ultrasonic bath to determine sonication effect on leachate. Each 400 ml sample was sonicated in four sonication times: 10, 20, 30, and 40 minutes. In other sonication step, H2O2 is added in 0.05 and 0.1 mol per liter, and samples are analyzed. Each sample was analyzed before and after sonication to determine: COD, VSS and FSS.Results: The most COD reduction rate was 8.22% in 40 min sonication. When H2O2 was added (0.05 mol/lit), COD reduction was 19.60%. When H2O2 was added (0.1 mol/lit), COD reduction was 19.72%. The ratio of VSS: FSS was 2.06 in raw leachate. After 10 min sonication, VSS: FSS ratio was decreased to 1.67. When H2O2 was added (0.05 mol/lit) in raw leachate, VSS: FSS ratio is increased to 2.94. The ratio of VSS: FSS was decreased to 2.67 and 2.16 when sonication (10 and 40 min) and H2O2 (0.05 mol/lit) was used, respectively. The ratio of VSS: FSS was increased to 3.61 and 2.16 when sonication (10 and 40 min) and H2O2 (0.1 mol/lit) was used, respectively.Conclusion: The results show that ultrasound can reduce VSS in leachate as pretreatment. H2O2 as an oxidant agent can also reduce organic matters in leachate and can be affect efficiency in next step of leachate treatment.

Removing toxic organic matter is one of the important tasks in wastewater treatment. Recently, heterogeneous catalysts are used to activate peroxymonosulfate and hydrogen peroxide in Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOP’s) based on sulfate radicals and hydroxyl radicals to remove these substances. In this research, lanthanum perovskite catalysts with some transition metals were prepared by citric acid sol-gel method and their performance in Advanced Oxidation Process of medicinal pollutant ciprofloxacin was investigated using two oxidants, peroxymonosulfate and hydrogen peroxide. It was found that the prepared catalysts had better degradation performance in the presence of promonosulfate. According to the results, the prepared LaCoO3 perovskite catalyst removes up to (71%) of the peroxymonosulfate oxidant and up to (39%) of the medicinal pollutant with the hydrogen peroxide oxidant.