Development of pilot-scale plasma bubble reactors for efficient antibiotics removal in wastewater

Plasma bubble (PB) is a promising technology to control antibiotic wastewater pollution. However, the practical implementation of PB technology at the industrial-scale is still underdeveloped. In addition, the influence of different discharge modes for PB on wastewater treatment is largely unknown. This study designed pilot-scale PB reactors with different discharge modes to investigate the degradation effect of norfloxacin (NOR) and tetracycline (TC) in bulk tap water. Results indicate that the dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) mode with low average discharge power demonstrates superior degradation ability and higher production of O_3(g) and ^.O₂⁻_(aq) compared to the spark mode which exhibits the high-intensity spark discharge in the tip area of the tube. After 40 min of treatment in a Double DBD reactor, 97.4% and 100% of NOR and TC are removed from 2 L tap water, attributed to the accumulation of antibiotic molecules by PBs and the in-situ generation of O_3(g) and ^.O₂⁻_(aq) produced by plasma. Furthermore, a larger-scale PB reactor is developed by creating an array of four DBD reactors, effectively degrading 8 L mixed antibiotics solution. This study provides valuable insights for PB reactor design and the degradation performance of antibiotic wastewater, which will contribute to the further development of synergistic systems for plasma degradation.