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

• Published in: Water science and technology Vol. 75; no. 6; pp. 1362 - 1369
• Main Authors: Hartley, Adam C., Moss, Joseph B., Keesling, Kyle J., Moore, Nathanael J., Glover, Justin D., Boyd, Joel E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England IWA Publishing 01.03.2017
• 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
• ISSN: 0273-1223; 1996-9732
• DOI: 10.2166/wst.2017.003

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.