Degradation of nitrofuran antibiotics in water by ozonation

Nitrofuran antibiotics, such as furaltadone (FTD), are biorefractory materials in water, and the degradation of FTD by using ozonation process was studied in this paper. In all cases, the reaction of FTD degradation by ozonation follows pseudo first-order kinetics. The influences of pH value on the reaction kinetics were investigated, and the results showed that ozonation process was remarkably affected by pH value, and FTD had 96.8% removal at a value of pH 11 in 10 minutes. The influence of representative inorganic anions on FTD degradation was also studied, and the sequence of effect to the degradation of FTD of the four inorganic anions was Cl^->;NO₃^->; HCO₃^-≥SO₄^2-. The degraded inter-mediates and removal yield of total organic carbon (TOC) in different contact time were examined by UV-Vis spectrometry and TOC analyzer. After reaction for 30 min, the removal rate of FTD was up to 99.8%, and the mineralization rate was up to 94.1%. According to above experimental results, the mechanism of FTD ozonation degradation was deduced initially.