Intensified hydrodynamic cavitation using vortex flow based cavitating device for degradation of ciprofloxacin.

The present work, for the first time, establishes degradation behavior of ciprofloxacin (CIP), a widely used fluoroquinolone group of antibiotics, using vortex flow based hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) for low to high concentrations of CIP (10 and 100 mg/L). Effect of pressure on the degradation of CIP and TOC reduction was investigated on pilot plant scale (capacity 1 m3/h). Process intensifications using aeration as well as hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2) were also investigated. While aeration did not yield any significant enhancement, process intensification using H 2 O 2 resulted in ∼ 200% enhancement in the CIP degradation as compared to HC alone. Excellent degradations, to an extent of 79 & 95%, were achieved corresponding to high cavitational yields of 7.2 × 10−4 mg/J and 86.8 × 10−4 mg/J for CIP concentrations of 10 and 100 mg/L respectively using the process intensified approach of HC and H 2 O 2 , not reported so far for cavitating devices without moving elements. The developed methodology demonstrated 4–7 times improvement in per-pass degradation and low cost with high efficiency compared to the conventional cavitation. The results clearly highlight utility of the process intensified approach using H 2 O 2 for the degradation of CIP even at high concentrations, specifically important for pharmaceutical industries requiring zero liquid discharge norms. [Display omitted] • Intensified Hydrodynamic cavitation for degradation of ciprofloxacin at high concentrations. • Ciprofloxacin degradation by vortex flow based cavitation device with high cavitational yield. • Process intensifications in hydrodynamic cavitation using H 2 O 2 and aeration. • A very high enhancement in degradation, more than 200% compared to only HC. • Excellent degradation efficiency of 95%, low cost implies application to removal of antibiotics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]