title: Performance evaluation of powdered activated carbon for removing 28 types of antibiotics from water.
abstract: Currently, the occurrence and fate of antibiotics in the aquatic environment has become a very serious problem in that they can potentially and irreversibly damage the ecosystem and human health. For this reason, interest has increased in developing strategies to remove antibiotics from water. This study evaluated the performance of powdered activated carbon (PAC) in removing from water 6 representative groups of 28 antibiotics, namely Tetracyclines (TCs), Macrolides (MCs), Chloramphenicols (CPs), Penicillins (PNs), Sulfonamides (SAs) and Quinolones (QNs). Results indicate that PAC demonstrated superior adsorption capacity for all selected antibiotics. The removal efficiency was up to 99.9% in deionized water and 99.6% in surface water at the optimum conditions with PAC dosage of 20 mg/L and contact time of 120 min. According to the Freundlich model's adsorption isotherm, the values of n varied among these antibiotics and most were less than 1, suggesting that the adsorption of antibiotics onto PAC was nonlinear. Adsorption of antibiotics followed well the pseudo-second-order kinetic model (R(2) = 0.99). Analysis using the Weber-Morris model revealed that the intra-particle diffusion was not the only rate-controlling step. Overall, the findings in this study confirm that PAC is a feasible and viable option for removing antibiotics from water in terms of water quality improvement and urgent antibiotics pollution control. Further research is essential on the following subjects: (i) removing more types of antibiotics by PAC; (ii) the adsorption process; and (iii) the mechanism of the competitive adsorption existing between natural organic matters (NOMs) and antibiotics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Aquatic Science and Technology, Tianjin Chengjian University, Jinjing Road 26, Tianjin 300384, China; Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NWS 2007, Australia.
authors.forename: Xinbo
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NWS 2007, Australia.
authors.forename: Wenshan
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NWS 2007, Australia. Electronic address: ngohuuhao121@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Huu Hao
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Ngo
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Aquatic Science and Technology, Tianjin Chengjian University, Jinjing Road 26, Tianjin 300384, China.
authors.forename: Haitao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Tianjin University, Wei Jin Road 92, Tianjin 300072, China.
authors.forename: Nan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Tianjin Sino French Jieyuan Water Company Limited, Jieyuan Road 30, Tianjin 300121, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D002606:Charcoal / Q000737:chemistry*; D004058:Diffusion; D007700:Kinetics; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D014867:Water; D002606:Charcoal
keywords: Adsorption; Antibiotics; Kinetics; Powdered activated carbon; Water treatment