Performance evaluation of reverse osmosis technology for selected antibiotics removal from synthetic pharmaceutical wastewater

This study addresses the possibility for low pressure reverse osmosis membrane (re 2521, csm) process to serve asan alternative to remove selected antibiotics (ampicillin and amoxicillin) from synthetic wastewater by changingoperating conditions such as ph = 3, 6.5 and 10; pressure = 9, 11 and13 (bar); antibiotic concentration = 10, 255and 500(mg/l), and temperature = 20, 30 and 40°c. the experiment was designed based on box-benken, which isa response surface methodology design (rsm), using design expert software. the concentration of antibiotics wasmeasured by applying a uv-spectrophotometer (cecil), at the wavelength of 254 nm. results showed a range ofrejection percentage from 73.52% to 99.36% and 75.1% to 98.8%, for amoxicillin and ampicillin, respectively.considering the solute rejections and the membrane porosity show that the prevailing rejection mechanism of theexamined antibiotics by the membrane was the size exclusion effect. the permeate flux for both of the antibioticswas 12–18.73 l/m2.h. although the permeate flux and antibiotic rejection are influenced by operating pressure, ph,and temperature individually, the interaction between operating parameters did not have noticeable effects.according to the results obtained in this study, the application of ro membrane is recommended for the selectedantibiotics to be removed to a considerable degree (up to 95%).