Wastewater from pharmaceutical and related industries contains many residual pharmaceutical components rich in color and high COD contents, which cannot be removed through the traditional wastewater treatment processes. Recently, microbial electrolysis ultraviolet cell (MEUC) process has shown its promising potential to remove recalcitrant organics because of its merits of wide pH range, iron-free, and without complications of iron sludge production. However, its application to the real pharmaceutical-rich industrial wastewater is still unknown. In this study, the MEUC process was validated with real ciprofloxacin-rich (6863.79 ± 2.21 µg L⁻¹) industrial wastewater (6840 ± 110 mg L⁻¹ of COD). The MEUC process achieved 100% removal of ciprofloxacin, 100% decolorization, and 99.1% removal of COD within 12, 60 and 30 h, respectively, when it was operated at pH-controlled at 7.8, applied voltage of 0.6 V, UV intensity of 10 mW cm⁻², and cathodic aeration velocity of 0.005 mL min⁻¹ mL⁻¹. Moreover, fluorescence analysis showed that protein- and humic-like substances in such wastewater were effectively removed, providing further evidence of its high treatment efficiency. Furthermore, eco-toxicity testing with luminescent bacteria Vibro Feschri confirmed that the treated effluent was utterly non-toxic. The results demonstrated the broad application potential of MEUC technology for treating industrial wastewater.

制药及相关行业的废水中含有大量颜色丰富、COD含量高的残留药物成分，传统的废水处理工艺无法去除这些残留药物成分。最近，微生物电解紫外池 (MEUC) 工艺显示出其去除顽固有机物的巨大潜力，因为它具有 pH 值范围广、不含铁和没有铁泥产生并发症的优点。然而，它在真正富含药物的工业废水中的应用仍是未知数。在本研究中，MEUC 工艺用真正富含环丙沙星 (6863.79 ± 2.21 µg L ^-1 ) 的工业废水 (6840 ± 110 mg L ^-1COD)。MEUC工艺在pH控制在7.8、外加电压0.6 V、UV强度为12、60和30小时内分别实现100%环丙沙星去除、100%脱色和99.1% COD去除。 10 mW cm ^-2，阴极曝气速度为0.005 mL min ^-1 mL ^-1。此外，荧光分析表明，此类废水中的蛋白质和腐殖质类物质被有效去除，进一步证明了其高处理效率。此外，使用发光细菌Vibro Feschri进行的生态毒性测试证实，处理后的废水完全无毒。结果表明MEUC技术在处理工业废水方面具有广泛的应用潜力。