Elimination of gatifloxacin from water: Treatment by electro-Fenton process and highlighting of a biological post-treatment

This study concerns the oxidative degradation and mineralization of gatifloxacin in aqueous solution at pH = 3 and in the presence of Fe2+ as catalyst  using electro-Fenton (EF) process, with carbon felt as a cathode and platinum as an anode. The mineralization is evaluated by the chemical oxygen demand by assessing the applied current value and concentration of catalyst Fe2+. Some stable by-products of gatifloxacin have been identified using high-performance liquid chromatography and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. The second part of this paper concerns the study of the biodegradability in determining of BOD5/COD during the mineralization of gatifloxacin by EF in order to evaluate the possibility of coupling electro-Fenton process with the biological one. This leads to an efficient treatment of water contaminated by this antibiotic with lower cost.