AGRO 31 |
| Unmetabolized antibiotics enter the soil and aquatic environments via the practice of applying agricultural manure to fields; their presence may promote the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and adversely affect ecosystem productivity. Degrading antibiotics in agricultural waste before their application to fields would eliminate these problems. The agricultural antibiotic sulfamethazine was successfully treated and removed from an aqueous system by Anodic Fenton Treatment (AFT), an advanced oxidation technique that effectively degrades pesticides but had never been applied to antibiotics. The degradation data were fitted to an AFT kinetic model that describes the degradation of triazine pesticides. The degradation of sulfamethazine was optimized for hydrogen peroxide to ferrous ion ratio and Fenton reagent delivery rate. The efficacy of the AFT in degrading other sulfonamides was also assessed. Finally, the degradation products of sulfamethazine and other sulfonamides were identified and analyzed to insure their lack of antibiotic or toxic properties and to propose a degradation pathway for each sulfonamide. |
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Agrochemical Education Awards For Graduate Student Travel
8:00 AM-11:00 AM, Monday, August 20, 2007 BCEC -- Exhibit Hall - B2, Poster
Division of Agrochemicals |