Removal of ofloxacin antibiotic using heterogeneous Fenton process over modified alginate beads

The aim of this work is to study the heterogeneous oxidative degradation of ofloxacin antibiotic using a composite material prepared from sodium alginate and cyclohexane dinitrilo tetraacetic acid (CDTA). The characterization tests indicated the successful incorporation of metal chelator and iron. It was also demonstrated that the synthesized beads are mesoporous. The influence of several experimental parameters (i.e.: H2O2 dose, working temperature, beads loading and initial drug concentration) on the process performances was evaluated. The reaction temperature significantly affects the drug conversion efficiency. It was also observed that the synthesized material was efficient toward the target antibiotic degradation in the presence of small quantities of hydrogen peroxide. Under optimum conditions (0.05 g of granules, initial drug concentration=10mg/L, 25μL of 10mmol/L H2O2), conducted in a batch reaction, 94% degradation of ofloxacin was reached. The results also indicate that the composite material showed a reasonable stability; a relatively low decrease of activity after four successive runs (only 9%) and a negligible iron leaching (0.8%) have been observed. The synthesized composite material offered interesting advantages in terms of simplicity, good stability, ease of recovery from the liquid medium after use and its efficiency in the presence of low quantities of oxidant. It constitutes a good candidate in the water treatment area.