Pharmaceutical compounds are typically produced in batch processes leading to the presence of a wide variety of products in wastewaters which are generated in different operations, wherein copious quantities of water are used for washing of solid cake, or extraction, or washing of equipment. The presence of pharmaceutical compounds in drinking water comes from two different sources: production processes of the pharmaceutical industry and common use of pharmaceutical compounds resulting in their presence in urban and farm wastewaters. The wastewaters generated in different processes in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals and drugs contain a wide variety of compounds. Further, reuse of water after removal of contaminants, whether pharmaceuticals or otherwise, is required by industry. In view of the scarcity of water resources, it is necessary to understand and develop methodologies for treatment of pharmaceutical wastewater as part of water management. In this review, the various sources of wastewaters in the pharmaceutical industry are identified and the best available technologies to remove them are critically evaluated. Effluent arising from different sectors of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), bulk drugs, and related pharmaceutics, which use large quantities of water, is evaluated and strategies are proposed to recover to a large extent the valuable compounds, and finally the treatment of very dilute but detrimental wastewaters is discussed. No single technology can completely remove pharmaceuticals from wastewaters. The use of conventional treatment methods along with membrane reactors and advanced posttreatment methods resulting in a hybrid wastewater treatment technology appear to be the best. The recommendations provided in this analysis will prove useful for treatment of wastewater from the pharmaceutical industry.

The application of cooperative heterogeneous catalysts for the promotion of C-C bond formation is of great potential for making such chemical processes more sustainable. In the design of such materials, the main challenges are to form specific catalytic sites and to control the cooperative interactions. Because of the high complexity inherent to cooperative active site interactions, much of the research is focused on so called "enzyme inspired-materials." The current Progress Report identifies three material subgroups that are characterized by a rigid-ordered backbone (layered material), a flexible backbone (polymer based), or a constrained-flexibleordered backbone (metal organic frameworks). In each of these material types, examples that illustrate how key structural and chemical characteristics functions are associated with the efficient promotion of the cooperative mechanism are highlighted. The limitations and strengths of each of the systems are considered with the aim of providing an outlook with regard to the minimum requirements needed to construct an efficient cooperative catalytic material. Given the current accumulated common knowledge in this area, it is suggested that getting inspiration from the synthetic existing systems is perhaps more beneficial than from enzymes.

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