Impact of selected wastewater constituents on the removal of sulfonamide antibiotics via ultrafiltration and micellar enhanced ultrafiltration

To better understand the environmental mobility of sulfonamide antibiotics and develop improved processes for their removal during wastewater treatment, stirred cell ultrafiltration (UF) experiments were conducted using both synthetic and real wastewater effluent. The interactions between selected sulfonamides (sulfaguanidine, sulfathiazole and sulfamerazine), solids and dissolved organic matter were systematically explored. The further impact of micellar enhanced ultrafiltration (MEUF), a process in which surfactants are added at micellar concentrations to enhance removal of various trace contaminants from aqueous streams, was then explored by using a cationic surfactant, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). Ultrafiltration of sulfonamides in the absence of other materials generally removed only 15–20% of the antibiotics. The presence of micellar solutions of CTAB generally improved removal of sulfonamides over UF alone, with rejections ranging from 20 to 74%. Environmental solids (sediment) further increased retention of sulfonamides using both UF and MEUF, but the presence of DOM did not influence rejection. Similar trends were observed on UF and MEUF of real effluent samples that had been spiked with the sulfonamides, confirming the environmental relevance of the observed interactions between sulfonamides, surfactant, and wastewater constituents. The results demonstrate that MEUF processes can be designed for the selective removal of such trace contaminants as sulfonamide antibiotics.