Efficient degradation of sulfamethoxazole by catalytic wet peroxide oxidation with sludge-derived carbon as catalysts

Sulfamethoxazole (SMX) is a commonly used antibiotic for both human and animals. The frequent detection of SMX in natural water bodies and sediment has become an issue of great environmental concern due to its potential risk to induce antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria. In the present work, the catalytic wet peroxide oxidation (CWPO) was investigated to remove SMX with sludge-derived carbon (SC) as a cheap alternative catalyst. Different acids were used to modify SC. It was found that SC modified with sulphuric acid (SC-H₂SO₄) demonstrated the best catalytic activity. The removal efficiency of SMX and TOC was 97.7% and 65.7%, respectively, after 260 min, at pH 5 with a dosage of 220 mg/L H₂O₂. The effects of temperature, initial pH and H₂O₂ dosage were also investigated. The study demonstrated that the increase of temperature could significantly improve the degradation of SMX from 10.0% at 20°C to 94.7% at 60°C.