Antibiotic wastewater purification via functional microorganisms mediated by enhanced electric field from synergistic...

Antibiotic resistance genes pose a global public health risk, which often come from biological wastewater treatment of antibiotics. Addressing this issue is scientifically challenging due to current inefficient and expensive technology. Herein, a dual-electron centers catalyst supported on commercial alumina (Fe,Al-GC/γ-Al₂O₃) was used in biofilter for treating the wastewater containing Ciprofloxacin (CIP). The removal efficiency of CIP was 68.24% and the expression of resistance genes decreased by 93.73%. An enhanced electric field was generated from dissolved organic carbon (DOC)-antibiotics-extracellular polymeric substance (EPS)-H₂O synergistic coordination on Fe,Al-GC/γ-Al₂O₃. It facilitated the enrichment of electroactive functional microorganisms, and enable the opening of the EPS electron pathway to achieve extracellular electron transfer, gradually reducing the mineralization energy level of the antibiotics. The experimental results show that antibiotics undergoes interfacial oxidative decomposition, forming non-antibacterial intermediate products, which reduces the direct stress on microorganisms and blocks the generation of resistance genes at the interface. The energy metabolism system mediated by the interface electric field has brought a new breakthrough to the engineering application technology for treating difficult-to-process wastewater, and has achieved the development of efficient and low-consumption water treatment technology.