Elimination of pharmaceuticals from aquatic environment using enzymatic apparatus of wood decaying fungi

abstract

English

The consumption of pharmaceuticals, especially antibiotics, worldwide is still constantly growing and environmental contamination by residues of these substances is widespread world-wide problem. This trend is associated not only with population growth, but especially with the development of civilization diseases, the availability of treatment, and also with increasing life expectancy and increasing life quality requirements Unfortunately, antibiotics are often prescribed to patients when unnecessary or misused by patients. For example in the Czech Republic, approximately 6.81 million packages of antibiotics were delivered to patients in 2017. Drug residues are excreted from the body either unchanged or in the form of various metabolites. Afterwards, these substances within municipal wastewater reach wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). It is known that the current conventionally used technological processes of treatment at mechanical-biological WWTPs are not sufficiently effective to eliminate these various pharmaceuticals. Due to this fact the quality of wastewater at the effluent from the WWTP may be significantly impaired. As a result, pharmaceuticals enter the aquatic environment and may have a negative effect on organisms living in water or/and can lead to contamination of other components of environment. The presence of pharmaceutical residues in the environment (even in low concentrations) and related risks are very discussed topics nowaday. The most significant risk associated with antibiotics is the possibility of bacterial resistance. The presence of macrolide antibiotics, as well as amoxicillin and ciprofloxacin on the “watch list” of European Commission, shows the importance of this issue. In the environment, self-purification processes based on natural biotic and abiotic processes can be found. These principles could be used in the design of new technologies eliminating environmental pollution. A promising method for the removal of pharmaceuticals from the aquatic environment are technologies using the enzymatic apparatus of wood-decaying fungi. The unspecific oxidative ligninolytic enzymatic system of wood-decaying fungi (white rot) have the potential to participate in the transformation and mineralization of organic pollutants structurally similar to lignin precursor molecules. The expected advantages of this technology are low operating costs and, above all, the fact that it is a natural bioremediation process. In addition, wood-decaying fungi are relatively durable, grow rapidly, and also adapt well to changing environmental conditions. In our experiments we used mycelium of Trametes Versicolor cultivated by unique way on scaffold cubes. This cubes were printed on the 3D printer from material which contains proportion of wood matter. The efficiency of the enzymatic apparatus of wood-decaying fungus T. versicolor in the elimination of sulfonamide antibiotics has already been proven in previous research. Pharmaceuticals from other therapeutic groups (antidepressants, β-blockers, antiepileptics) were included in further experiments.

pharmaceuticals, white rot fungi, Trametes versicolor, 3D-printing, wastewater

SUKOVÁ, P.; LANDOVÁ, P.; ŽIŽLAVSKÁ, A.; HLAVÍNEK, P.

2. 12. 2019

20th European Meeting on Environmental Chemistry - EMEC20

Lodz, Poland

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