Degradation of tetracycline by ultrasound enhanced catalytic ozonation

摘要

Introduction Due to the abuse of tetracycline in livestock farming and animal husbandry for the long term and its poor bio-degradation as well as difficult governance, there has been a raising concern about the presence of tetracycline in the aquatic environment [1]. The treatment of antibiotics wastewater by ozonation can achieve the aim of degradation in some degree, but the applications of ozonation have been limited by the high production cost of ozone and the low ozone utilization due to poor mass transfer rate of ozone. To overcome the drawback, goethite is selected because of its high surface hydroxyl content, low solubility and capability to be catalytic decomposition of ozone generated hydroxyl radical [2]. When ultrasound is combined with goethite and ozone, the active catalyst surface area would increase, cavitation bubble formation would be promoted, and ultrasonic irradiation has been demonstrated to increase the mass transfer of ozone to solution by means of increasing volumetric mass transfer coefficient [1].