The efficiency of Rhodotron accelerator in removing Fexofenadine and Montelukast Drugs from aqueous environment

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the efficiency of electron beams to remove emerging pollutants. Emerging pollutants, especially drugs and their metabolites, have attracted much attention as environmental pollutants. In this research, the effects of electron beams were investigated using a Rhodotron accelerator, taking into account the influencing parameters and selecting appropriate pH values, concentrations, and absorption doses for the removal of drugs. The drugs studied are anti-inflammatory and respiratory drugs that are used to reduce inflammation, pain and fever. During the corona pandemic, these drugs were heavily used for patients with respiratory problems. Considering the lack of previous studies on drug removal using high-energy electron beam (EB) processes in aqueous solutions, researchers aimed to evaluate the feasibility of removing Fexofenadine and Montelukast from aqueous solutions using a Rhodotron accelerator.

Materials and Methods: This experimental study was conducted in a laboratory-scale, discontinuous manner. Fexofenadine and Montelukast, the target drugs of this study, were placed in 50 mL polystyrene containers and irradiated using an electron beam Rhodotron accelerator. The research examined the effects of pH ranging from 3 to 10, initial concentrations of 50 to 100 milligrams per liter for both drugs, and absorbed doses of 5 to 20 kilograys of high-energy electron beams. pH measurements were carried out using a pH meter. The initial and remaining concentrations of the two drugs were determined using a UV/Vis spectrophotometer. Kinetic models were employed to describe the removal rates of Fexofenadine and Montelukast during the electron beam irradiation process.

Results: According to the results, the removal efficiency of Fexofenadine decreased from 92.25% to 90.52% with the change of pH in the range of 3 to 10, and similarly, for Montelukast, the removal efficiency decreased from 86.43% to 84.78%, respectively. The removal efficiency of Fexofenadine decreased from 93.23% to 82.39% and for montelukast from 87.12% to 78.43% as the initial concentration increased from 50 to 100 mg/L, respectively. Furthermore, increasing the absorbed dose from 5 to 20 kg increased the removal efficiency of Fexofenadine from 88.30% to 94.11% and for montelukast from 84.12% to 88.75%, respectively. Kinetic analysis showed that the degradation of both drugs followed pseudo-first-order kinetics during high-energy electron beam irradiation.