Occurrence of the Antimicrobials Sulfamethoxazole and Trimethoprim in Hospital Effluent and Study of Their Degradation Products after Electrocoagulation

In this study, an investigation was carried out into the occurrence of sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and trimethoprim (TMP) in the effluent of the university hospital (HUSM) of the UFSM. The degradation of these antimicrobials by the electrocoagulation (EC) process was also examined, in both the aqueous solution and hospital effluent, and a study was conducted in order to identify the subproducts formed. The experiments were optimized through factorial planning and, also, checked by response surface methodology. The best conditions for EC (achieving 58.0% of chemical oxygen demand (COD) reduction) were obtained by using 13 mA cm−2, 500 mg L−1 of NaCl, and 30 mm of interelectrode distance. The quantification of SMX (27.8 µg L−1) and TMP (6.65 µg L−1) in the hospital effluent, and the identification of the degradation products were carried out through liquid chromatography‐mass spectrometry quadrupole linear and ion trapping with electrospray ionization (LC‐ESI‐MS/MS_QTrap). Removals of 88.0% (degradation only) and 33.0% (adsorption only) were achieved for aqueous solutions of SMX and TMP, respectively, under optimized conditions. In hospital effluent samples, fortified with additions of SMX and TMP, corresponding removals of 16.0% (degradation) and 28.0% (adsorption) were achieved. This suggests that the EC process is efficient in degrading SMX in aqueous solution, although the same was not the case with TMP. The degradation products of SMX were identified (m/z 256.0 and 288.5); however, only the latter is mentioned in the literature. Toxicological aspects were not considered in this study. An investigation was carried out into the occurrence of sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim in the effluent of a hospital. All experiments were optimized through factorial planning and, also, checked by response surface methodology.