Degradação do antibiótico Amoxicilina em efluente de indústria farmacêutica

Abstract

Pharmaceuticals are complex molecules with different biological and physicochemical properties. That is vital not only for human and veterinarian medicine but also in agriculture and aquiculture. Despite the low concentrations of antibiotics released in the environment, both by the producers and by the consumers (human and veterinarian use) these substances are introduced continuously in the environment, where they disperse and allow an increase in bacterial resistance in different settings. Classes of antibiotics have many chemical properties as water solubility, pH, volatility, sorption potential which influence in their behaviour in the environment. This research aims to investigate the biodegradability of a pharmaceutical wastewater generated in the production line of amoxicillin and its degradation by advanced oxidation process, specifically the Fenton's reagent. This study involved the characterization of active amoxicillin and of three effluents from the drugs production batches. There were two batteries of tests of aerobic biodegradation on the amoxicillin and in 01 effluent fresh and later enriched with amoxicillin, using an inoculum of a Industrial Effluents Wastewater Treatment from pharmaceutical source, and another from a sanitary sewage treatment. The study of oxidative degradation using Fenton's reagent was also made, occurring the formation of precipitates during the oxidative process. The inoculum behaviors proved to be quite different while degrading the amoxicillin and the fresh effluents. The enriched effluents biodegradability indicated that biodegradable organic load can mask its degradation. The effluents showed high variability in their COT concentrations and in their degradation rate with Fenton reagent. On the amoxicillins oxidative degradation study we obtained a 60% degradation rate, and it was found that adsorption of amoxicillin occurred in the precipitates