Efficacy of convective-diffusion models to study the transient behaviour of a sewage-sludge-filled packed column for aqueous phase adsorption of fluoroquinolones: Consideration of pseudo-kinetics driven depletion of species

Ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin belong to a class of antibiotics called Fluoroquinolones (FQs), which have a wide anti-bacterial activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Since the recent Covid-19 pandemic witnessed a magnanimous rise in the use of antibiotics to prevent secondary bacterial infections, it led to vast production and use of such antibiotics. Ultimately the antibiotics get discharged into the municipal sewer pipes, thereby killing the useful microbial colony. In order to prevent environmental degradation a commercial scale-up of the adsorption of these antibiotics using raw sewage sludge is an absolute necessity.