Penicillin removal from the aqueous environment based on AOPs/challenges and outlook. A review

Abstract

Today, the deterioration of water quality is still a big concern among researchers, whose essential strategy is to develop water purification processes. The presence of contamination of emerging concerns has become a challenging issue, their toxicity, persistence in the aquatic environment, and their mass accumulation at low concentrations have had adverse effects on human health and aquatic organisms. Biological disposal or improper disposal, these pollutants cause serious damage to the population of non-target groups. Penicillin is a broad-spectrum group of beta-lactam antibiotics that has caused concerns for human health and the environment due to its slow decomposition in water sources. This review article focuses on the application of advanced oxidation processes to eliminate these antibiotics. Several studies have investigated the effects of different parameters on species with both ultraviolet and non-ultraviolet light. The results have been promising, with an average efficiency above 80% for these processes. Despite the limitations of various methods, the knowledge gap in future studies has been addressed by proposing the use of Fenton, ultrasound method and Integrated processes like Synergistic Remediation-Advanced Oxidation Processes.