Removal of pyrazinamide and its by-products from water: Treatment by electro-Fenton process and feasibility of a biological post-treatment

Abstract

This paper reports a study on oxidative degradation and mineralization of pyrazinamide in an aqueous medium at pH = 3 and room temperature (≈ 19 °C) by the electro-Fenton process, using carbon felt as a cathode and platinum as an anode. The degradation/mineralization is assessed by the chemical oxygen demand by analyzing applied current intensity and concentration of Fe2+ catalyst. Thus, the main objective is to determine the optimal values of these parameters. Some stable intermediate products have been identified using highperformance liquid chromatography and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry, which show the successive formation of the aromatic/cyclic organics and aliphatic intermediates. The second part of this work corresponds to the study of the biodegradability giving by the ratio: BOD5/COD during the mineralization of pyrazinamide by EF in order to examine the possibility of combining electro-Fenton with a biological posttreatment.