Oxidative degradation of emerging micropollutants induced by rotational hydrodynamic cavitating device: A case study with ciprofloxacin.

The trace amount of micro-pollutants (organic mostly) those still remain in the final effluent of any industry even after the tertiary treatment is a serious matter of concern and needs special treatment strategy to address the same. Advanced oxidation processes have emerged as the best suited remedy for that. However, among all the AOPs, cavitation process is till now one of the most unattempted technologies in spite of inherent enormous potential. The present work reports a study with the degradation of the antibiotic Ciprofloxacin (CIP) using a novel skid-mounted rotating hydrodynamic cavitation (RHC) reactor. Using only hydrodynamic cavitation, 44.8% CIP degradation was achieved within 60 min. Now RHC combined with oxidizing agents like O 3 (0.75 g/h), H 2 O 2 (0.3 g/L) and Fenton's reagent (1:3) resulted in 91.4%, 85.6%, and 87.6% degradation within 30 min. The HC+H 2 O 2 (0.3 g/L) surpassed the performances of other combinations from energetic and economic viewpoint. Liquid chromatography–mass spectra (LC–MS) studies were performed to evaluate the degradation mechanism. Lastly, a pilot scale study (400 L) with real life water sample post tertiary treatment collected from pharmaceutical industry was carried out to understand the techno-economic feasibility. [Display omitted] • Design and development of a Rotating Hydrodynamic Cavitation (RHC) reactor. • Implementing RHC in degradation of Ciprofloxacin (CIP). • Integrated performance of RHC with other AOPs like H 2 O 2 , O 3 , and Fenton's Reagent. • Techno-economic feasibility analysis for CIP degradation using RHC. • Pilot scale case study with tertiary treated real-life pharmaceutical wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]