Oxidation of enrofloxacin with conductive-diamond electrochemical oxidation, ozonation and Fenton oxidation: a comparison.

The treatment of enrofloxacin synthetic wastewaters using conductive-diamond electrochemical oxidation (CDEO), ozonation and Fenton oxidation has been studied. Results show that the three technologies can reduce the organic content of enrofloxacin synthetic wastewaters but with different performances. CDEO was the most efficient technology in terms of mineralization but not on COD removal, which was more efficiently achieved by ozonation. This indicates that ozonation is efficient in the breakage of the complex molecules but not on the removal of final carboxylic acids. The high initial efficiency in terms of oxidant-use obtained by Fenton oxidation evidences that it is very efficient in the removal of the enrofloxacin, although it rapidly leads to the formation of refractory compounds to the treatment. This indicates the significance of other oxidation mechanisms (e.g. coagulation) that enhance the results obtained by the expected hydroxyl-mediated oxidation. Ammonium ions were the primary product species in CDEO and nitrate ions in ozonation, whereas Fenton effluents contained similar amounts of both nitrogen ionic species.