Degradation of cefradine in alga-containing water environment: a mechanism and kinetic study

Large quantities of antibiotics are manufactured, used, and eventually discharged into alga-containing water environment as prototypes, by-products, or transformation products. Different activities of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii toward cefradine (CFD) were studied, and the results indicated that CFD is resistant (removal rate of 5.45–14.72%) in simulated natural water environment. Cefradine was mainly removed by hydrolysis, adsorption, desorption, photodecarboxylation, and photoisomerization. The effects of C. reinhardtii density, initial solution pH, and different light sources on CFD removal efficiency were investigated. The optimum conditions occurred at a density of algae 10 × 10 4 cells/mL, a solution pH of 9.0, and the ultraviolet (UV) light. Additionally, the removal kinetics under 16 different conditions was explored. The results showed that the removal of CFD fits well with a pseudo-first-order kinetic, and the half-life times are from 0.8 to 261.6 days. This study summarizes the CFD removal mechanisms in alga-containing water environment, highlights the important role played by light irradiation in eliminating CFD, and obtains the important kinetic data on CFD removal.