Cost Effective Method for Toxicity Screening of Pharmaceutical Wastewater Containing Inorganic Salts and Harmful Organic Compounds

Abstract

Pharmaceutical wastewater biological treatment plants are stressed with multi-component wastewater and unexpected variations in wastewater flow, composition and toxicity. To avoid operational problems and reduced wastewater treatment efficiency, accurate monitoring of influent toxicity on activated sludge microorganisms is essential. This paper outlines how to predict highly toxic streams, which should be avoided, using measurements of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), if they are made in a wide range of initial concentration. The results indicated that wastewater containing multivalent Al 3+ cations showed a strong toxic effect on activated sludge biocenosis irrespectively of dilutions, while toxicity of phenol and formaldehyde containing wastewater decreased considerably with increasing dilution. Activated sludge microorganisms were not sensitive to wastewater containing halogenated sodium salts (NaCl, NaF) and showed high treatment capacity of saline wastewater. Our findings confirm that combined indicators of contamination, such as chemical oxygen demand (COD), alone do not allow evaluating potential toxic influence of wastewater. Obtained results allow identifying key inhibitory substances in pharmaceutical wastewater and evaluating potential impact of new wastewater streams or increased loading on biological treatment system. Proposed method is sensitive and cost effective and has potential for practical implementation in multiproduct pharmaceutical wastewater biological treatment plants. Keywords -Activated sludge; biochemical oxygen demand; pharmaceutical wastewater; toxicity Nomenclature BODBiochemical oxygen demand mg/L COD Chemical oxygen demand mg/L

Chemical waste and allied products

“…Results indicated that a more reliable and promising alternative for the treatment of high TOC pharmaceutical wastewater may be the 3D/O 3 operation. Strade and Kalnina (2019) used the measurement of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) to identify highly toxic flows in pharmaceutical wastewaters. This prediction is essential for avoiding operational problems and improving the performance of treating wastewater.…”

“…Strade and Kalnina (2019) used the measurement of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) to identify highly toxic flows in pharmaceutical wastewaters. This prediction is essential for avoiding operational problems and improving the performance of treating wastewater.…”

TiO2 Application for the Photocatalytical Inactivation of S. enterica, E. coli and M. luteus Bacteria Mixtures

“…Unfortunately, all of these traditional measures have large drawbacks. After treatment by antibiotics, water could be highly polluted by hardly biodegradable, toxic and bio-persistent xenobiotics [3]. Therefore, after treating wastewater with strong chemicals their residuals have to be somehow isolated and extracted.…”

“…UV sterilisation in most cases is not 100 % efficient and the surviving bacteria and viruses reproduce their population [4]. Meanwhile, treatment with antibiotics is becoming highly undesirable due to the rising immunity of the treated species especially at such antibiotic rich users as hospitals, farms and others [3], [4]. Seeking for the efficient disinfection alternatives exponentially increasing number of scientists are focusing at the implementation of the Advanced Oxidation processes (AOP) which have a huge potential to efficiently remove both biological (virus, bacteria and other microorganisms) and industrial (dyes, pesticides, pharmaceutical etc.)…”

Effect of Combining Different Substrates and Inoculum Sources on Bioelectricity Generation and COD Removal in a Two-Chambered Microbial FuelCell: A Preliminary Investigation

“…Therefore, in this study, potential application of an MFC as a power generating unit and a wastewater treatment unit was evaluated. In addition, effect of inoculum source and substrate source on bioelectricity generation and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal, which is an important parameter in wastewater treatment [10] in the MFC was investigated.…”