Investigating the degradation kinetics of sulfamethazine for antibiotic wastewater treatment processes

Abstract

Antibiotics are consumed in healthcare or agriculture in large quantities. As a result, used and unused antibiotics eventually end up in our sewage system. The presence of antibiotics in our sewage system can be detrimental to the human body and the environment when the water returns to water bodies after treatment. However, there is no proper treatment processes at wastewater plants to dispose them. In this report, a study on the treatment of wastewater containing sulfamethazine (SMT), a type of sulfonamide antibiotic, is done, using a specially prepared TiO2 photocatalyst under UV irradiation.