Treatment of Lasalocid A, Salinomycin and Semduramicin as ionophore antibiotics in pharmaceutical wastewater by PAMAM-coated membranes

Abstract Polyether ionophore antibiotics such as Lasalocid A, Salinomycin and Semduramicin, which are used a lot in veterinary medicine, have high toxicity among other antibiotics. They cannot be eliminated by conventional wastewater treatment and leak into surface and ground water which can have detrimental damage on aquatic environment. Membrane processes like ultrafiltration can be a solution as tertiary and advanced treatment for this issue. Unfortunately, they can be easily fouled by dissolved substances. In this study, poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimers were used as novel antifouling agents and chemically coated on the amidoximated membranes with different half-generations (G0-G2.5). New membranes exhibited great performances in the treatment of pharmaceutical wastewater with these antibiotics. G2.5 PAMAM-coated ultrafiltration membranes were selected as optimum membranes with 120.4 L/m2.h of pure water flux, 91.3% of Semduramicin rejection, low contact angle (51.2°) and zeta potential (-56.1 mV). The flux profiles of these membranes revealed that the flux reduction does not occur after 1-1.5 h of filtration. These profiles were fitted by power law model. In addition to the surface charge and pore size, the branches of dendrimers, which had negative charges, acted great roles during the filtration.