Micro/nanobubbles ozonization as a tertiary treatment to remove antibiotics from urban wastewater secondary effluents

• Grant number: 24/17420-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: April 28, 2025
• End date: April 27, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Sanitary Engineering - Water Supply and Wastewater Treatment
• Principal Investigator: Valdemar Luiz Tornisielo
• Grantee: Patrícia Alexandre Evangelista
• Supervisor: Eva Maria Rodriguez Franco
• Host Institution: Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura (CENA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidad de Extremadura, Badajoz (UEx), Spain
• Associated to the scholarship: 21/10431-5 - Antimicrobials in the environment: occurrence, depletion and remediation strategy., BP.DR

Abstract

The presence of antibiotics in effluents from wastewater treatment plants represents a serious risk to public and environmental health, requiring the development of more efficient technologies for their removal. Ozonation, an advanced oxidative process, has shown promise in the degradation of various pollutants, including antibiotics. However, the combination with micro/nanobubbles (MNBs) has emerged as an innovative strategy to overcome the limitations of conventional ozonation, increasing the mass transfer of ozone and intensifying the oxidation process. The main objective of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness of MNB-assisted ozonation in the treatment of secondary effluents enriched with antibiotics at low concentrations. The research will investigate the reaction kinetics of antibiotics with ozone and hydroxyl radicals, the influence of pH, the removal of antibiotics under different operating conditions and the formation of by-products. Combinations with other advanced oxidative processes (O3/H2O2 and O3/UV) will also be explored to optimize the removal of contaminants. The methodology includes kinetic experiments, degradation analysis and identification of intermediates by HPLC-MS/MS. The research is expected to generate relevant data for the effluent treatment area, contributing to the development of more efficient and sustainable technologies for antibiotic removal.