Evaluation of usability of advanced oxidation processes for the elimination of pharmaceuticals from treated wastewater.

abstract

English

Constantly increasing consumption of pharmaceuticals along with the low capability of wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) to effectively eliminate these compounds leads to the emission of contaminated waters into the recipients. Water resources with its biological communities are thus in the danger of acute or chronic toxic effects towards non-target organisms caused by micropollutants. Particularly antibiotics are in a great concern because their constant presence in the environment may cause the induction of antimicrobial resistance which is one of the biggest global health threats to the human population in the 21st century. One of the promising ways of how to eliminate such compounds from water is to use advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) which can non-selectively oxidize a broad variety of micropollutants1. Our research is focusing on the use of flow-through AOP pilot unit for the elimination of pharmaceuticals (representatives from the group of β-blocking agents, antibiotics, antidepressants and anticonvulsants) from the outflow of the conventional WWTP. The AOP unit was equipped with the pump, O3 generator and O3 analyzer, H2O2 dosing pump and pair of UV reactors with LP UV-C lamps. The use of different concentrations of O3 alone, O3 with H2O2 and O3 with UV light was tested. In every tested combination, the doses of O3 ranged from 0.1 to 0.2 mmol/L, the dose of H2O2 was set to the molar ratio of 2:1 (O3:H2O2). All experiments were done in five repetitions over the course of one month. To quantify the target analytes on low concentration levels in such complex samples it was necessary to use solid phase extraction followed by liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry. Out of the 12 monitored compounds, 9 of them were present in every sample taken from the inflow to the AOP unit with the concentration ranging from hundreds of ng/L to the units of µg/L. Based on the collected data it was discovered that the used AOPs were efficient in the elimination of selected pharmaceuticals from the outflow of the WWTP. Even the smallest dose of ozone (0.1 mmol/L) caused a rapid decline in the concentrations of target compounds (with the average elimination efficiency of 88 % for all the compounds). Simultaneously, there was not found a statistically significant difference in elimination efficiencies between the three tested combinations. From this point of view, the use of ozone alone seems to be efficient enough and the most practical for the elimination of selected pharmaceuticals from treated wastewater matrix.

Micropollutants, pharmaceuticals, ozonation, wastewater

LANDOVÁ, P.; ŠVESTKOVÁ, T.; MACSEK, T.; ÚTERSKÝ, M.; VÁVROVÁ, M.; HLAVÍNEK, P.

9. 6. 2019

CSI XLI - Mexico 2019

Mexico City

69

69

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QbuqVIypv69iGlAB4An9cw6vw4BVFKpV/view