Removal of amoxicillin from processing wastewater by ozonation and UV-aided ozonation: a kinetic and economic comparative study

A novel empirical and scaling up simulation study is presented for degradation and mineralization of real residue of amoxicillin (AMX) pharmaceutical formulation in wastewater. A set of UV-ozone-based experiments was used in the kinetics modeling of AMX, considering several chemical/photochemical mechanisms (direct ozonation, radical reactions, and photolysis). Finally, the modeling data was used for scaling up purposes, considering CAPEX and OPEX costs on the US Gulf Coast basis. In terms of experimental results, amoxicillin (AMX) pharmaceutical effluent was successfully degraded by ozone technology in high pH value. The semi-batch ozonation process was effective after 60-min treatment in all experimental conditions, producing degradation intermediates recalcitrant to the ozone oxidative process. From the bench-scale kinetics, scaling up simulations indicate that the smaller gain provided by adding a UV unit does not compensate for the increase in capital and operational costs of adding irradiation equipment, suggesting as the best cost-effective approach the application of direct ozonation.