Elimination of Amoxicillin from Hospital Wastewater Using the Cold Plasma Technique

Abstract

In this paper, a cold plasma process was employed for the removal of amoxicillin (AM) and total organic carbon (TOC) from real hospital wastewater in Vietnam via the statistical design of a central composite design (CCD), with three factors of initial pH, applied voltage, and reaction time, respectively. Under optimal treatment conditions of a reaction time of 36.5 min, initial pH of 10.5, and an applied voltage of 36.5 kV, a good TOC removal efficiency of ~72.4% as well as most of the amoxicillin was eliminated. In addition, theoretical approaches (e.g., DFT and NBO calculations) revealed the proposed major degradation pathways of AM and the final mineralization to H2 O, CO2, SO4 2−, and NO3− . The obtained results demonstrate the potential of employing a cold plasma process for the treatment of pharmaceutical-containing wastewater.