Electron beam treatment for eliminating the antimicrobial activity of piperacillin in wastewater matrix

Effluents of wastewater treatment plants represent critical control points for antibiotic resistance management. To meet strict regulations coming into effect in the future advanced technologies need to be implemented that can remove the factors contributing to the development of resistance in receiving natural environments. By performing microbiological assays we show that electron beam treatment of a complex synthetic effluent wastewater matrix is able to eliminate one of these factors, the antimicrobial activity of the beta-lactam antibiotic piperacillin present at environmentally relevant concentration. Since (OH)-O-center dot governs the antibacterial inactivation the technology needs to be designed to the stoichiometric presence of (OH)-O-center dot. (C) 2017 The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.