Degradation of Bezafibrate with UV/H2O2 in Surface Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant Effluent

Bezafibrate (BZF), a widely used lipid regulator, is a potential threat to ecosystems and human health in water, and the recent research showed that advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are much more effective for BZF degradation. In this study, we investigated the photochemical decomposition of BZF in surface water and effluent from waste water treatment plants (WWTP) by UV/H2O2 process. The results showed that the UV/H2O2 process was a promising method to remove BZF at low concentration, generally at mu g L-1 level. When initial concentrations reach 100 mu g L-1 in the deionized water, >99.8% of BZF could be removed in 16min under UV intensity of 61.4 mu m cm(-2), at the H2O2 concentration of 0.1mg L-1, and neutral pH condition. Moreover, BZF degradation was inhibited in this process when humic acid (HA) and inorganic solution anions were added to the deionized water solutions, including chloride, nitrate, bicarbonate, and sulfate, significantly. In the surface water and effluent of WWTP, however, the removal efficiency of BZF was lower than that in the deionized water because of the interference of complex constituents in the surface water and effluent. Some main intermediates at the m/z range of 100-400 were observed by high performance LC-MS (HPLC/MS) and a simple pathway of BZF degradation by UV/H2O2 was proposed.