Application Of Nanofiltration Membrane In The Separation Of Amoxicillin From Pharmaceutical Wastewater

Separation of amoxicillin from pharmaceutical wastewater by nanofiltration (NF) membrane has been investigated in this study. For this purpose a membrane system including a polyamide spiral wound NF membrane was evaluated for the treatment of amoxicillin wastewater. The effects of operating conditions such as flow rate, pressure and concentration of amoxicillin and COD in the feed, on the efficiency of the membrane were evaluated. The permeation flux and rejection of amoxicillin and COD were the criteria for this evaluation. The rejection of the amoxicillin by the selected NF membrane was adequate and in most cases exceeded 97% whereas COD reached a maximum of 40% rejection and permeation flux was over 1.5 L/min.m2. The rise in pressure enhanced the transport rate of the solvents. Permeation flux of the NF membrane increased with increasing flow rates. Experimental data also indicated that concentration polarization existed in this membrane separation process. The stable permeation flux and high rejection of amoxicillin indicated the potential of NF for the recovery of amoxicillin from the pharmaceutical wastewater

The surveying of soil and groundwater pollution in a petroleum refinery and the potential of bioremediation for oil decontamination

Published online: 30 Oct 2013Soil contamination with crude oil is an important worldwide issue and the remediation of oil contaminated soils, sediments and groundwater is a major environmental challenge. In the target area of this survey, which is a petroleum refinery near Tehran, soil and groundwater pollution, and its source, contaminated area, and distribution of pollution were studied by means of different measurements. Oil content and volatile organic compounds were measured to determine soil and groundwater contamination. The investigations showed that the contamination of soil which is mainly silt and clay has reached to the groundwater which is around 20 m underground and formed an oily layer mainly containing gasoline, kerosene, and gas oil with different thicknesses in the whole area. The free oil existing over the groundwater table could be removed by physical ways such as pump and treat method but decontamination of soil is more complex. Due to long-lasting contamination of the field, the existence of accumulated indigenous microorganisms and the probable ability of them to effectively biodegrade pollutants by man-assisted interventions are expected. In this survey in order to clarify the contamination problem, some experiments have been done on the region soil and groundwater. Besides, the feasibility assessment of bioremediation in the investigated area is performed.M. Zargar, M. H. Sarrafzadeh, B. Taheri, and O. Tavakol