Degradation study of some pharmaceuticals in commercial formulation by electro‐Fenton process using a dimensionally stable anode cathode: Analytical technique, optimization conditions, and energy consumption

Abstract The aim of this work was to degrade pharmaceuticals such as amoxicillin (AMX), ceftriaxone (CTX), and Telebrix (TLX) by electro‐Fenton (EF) process using a dimensionally stable anode (DSA) cathode, Pt‐RuO 2 ‐IrO 2 (PRI). For this purpose, the optimal conditions of degradation, the pseudo‐first‐order kinetics, the current efficiency, the electrochemical energy consumption (EEC), and the energy cost have been investigated. A spectrophotometric analysis technique has been developed. It is a simple, fast, linear, reliable, and selective technique with LOD = 0.013 g/L and LOQ = 0.04 g/L. The optimum working conditions determined are: Fe 2+ = 0.2 mM, pH = 3, j = 20 mA/cm 2 , and (Pt, PRI) as electrode pair. Under these conditions, the EF process leads to a conversion of the parent compound. In addition, the degradation of compounds by EF follows pseudo‐first‐order kinetics. The EEC for the degradation of 1 kg COD of an organic compound is 99.48, 66.86, and 50.32 kWh kg COD −1 for AMX, CTX, and TLX respectively. The energy cost for processing these compounds is $4.92 (AMX), $10.03 (CTX), and $7.55 (TLX) with current efficiencies between 26% and 51%. Ultimately, the EF process using PRI at the cathode can be used for the treatment of real wastewater from health centres under optimal conditions.