The Continuous Effect of Different Fillers on the Removal of Sulfamethoxazole in Constructed Rapid Infiltration System

Fillers are the core of the artificial rapid filtration system(CRI),but the continuous removal efficiency and influencing factors of different fillers for emerging organic pollutants are rarely reported. Taking antibiotics sulfamethoxazole(SMX) as the research object,natural materials including river sand,volcanic,vermiculite and artificial material activated carbon were selected to construct the simulation CRI systems for more than 760 cycles to examine the continuous effect of different fillers on the removal of SMX and the related factors. The results showed that the SMX removal rate of sand,volcanic rock and vermiculite columns was 22. 3%~51. 8% affected by the adsorption of fillers and the action of microorganism,and the adsorption function lasted for about 320-370 days. The removal rate of artificial activated carbon on SMX was continuously higher than 92. 5%,and the adsorption removal rate has been still higher than 52. 5% after 370 days while the accumulation of SMX did not inhibit the microbial action,which contributed to 20 ug of SMX removal per cycle. The activated carbon could be used as an alternative filler to strengthen the function of CRI system.