Feasibility Analysis of Tetracycline Degradation in Water by O3/PMS/FeMoBC Process

In this study, the feasibility of tetracycline (TC) degradation in water using Fe-Mo co-supported biochar (FeMoBC) as catalyst combined with ozone and peroxymonosulfate (O₃/PMS) system is discussed. The experiment showed that the mineralization rate of TC by O₃/PMS/FeMoBC process reached 60.1% within 60 min, which was significantly higher than the treatment effect of O₃ or O₃/PMS system alone. Meanwhile, this process showed higher degradation efficiency under the background of raw water, and the loss of FeMoBC cycle attenuation performance was small. Twelve intermediates in the degradation of TC were identified by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS), and the possible degradation paths were inferred by quantum chemical calculation. In addition, the toxicity of intermediate products was evaluated by ecological structure-activity relationships (ECOSAR) and toxicity estimation software tool (T.E.S.T.) software, and the results showed that with the degradation of TC, its toxicity showed a downward trend as a whole. Therefore, this study confirmed that O₃/PMS/FeMoBC had high efficiency in degrading TC in actual water, which provided a new idea for the treatment of high concentration organic wastewater.