Effectiveness of conventional wastewater treatment processes in removing pharmaceutically active compounds

Abstract

Limited work has been done to assess the types and levels of PACs in domestic and treated wastewater in arid and semi-arid countries. In these countries, reuse or artificial recharge of treated sewage effluent is commonly practiced. Thus, the objectives of this study were to quantify the levels of selected PACs in domestic wastewater in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and to assess the effectiveness of domestic wastewater treatment plants in their removal. An analytical protocol was developed for the analysis of 15 PACs using a UPLC-MS/MS system. Four batches of water and sludge samples were collected from different locations at Al Saad Wastewater Treatment Plant in Al Ain, UAE. Aliquots of each sample were enriched by solid phase extraction. Results show that phenylephrine, dapsone, noscapine, propyl gallate, genistein, and ketoconazole were present in the raw wastewater at low levels (<0.1 μg/L), while acetaminophen and caffeine were present at high levels (>10 μg/L). The overall removal efficiency of the tested PACs from the water stream exceeded 99% for cotinine, acetaminophen, caffeine, naproxen, and ibuprofen, but significantly drops (<50%) for phenylephrine, amoxicillin, dapsone, noscapine, spiramycin, noscapine, genistein and ketoconazole. Analysis of the results indicate that, for highly removed PACs, the main mechanism of removal is possibly aerobic biodegradation. However, for tyramine, dapsone, 9-aminoacridine, noscapine, propyl gallate, and ketoconazole sorption onto the mixed liquor suspended solids first occurs followed by removal by anaerobic digestion. Results of the study should be useful for properly managing treated sewage effluent and sewage sludge.

Cucurbituril—assisted sensitive fluorescence detection and quantitation of naproxen drug in wastewater samples: Guest-host characterization and HPLC investigation

“…Several studies have been published in peer-reviewed journals that describe the detection of naproxen in wastewater using HPLC with UV-Vis, fluorescence, or mass spectrometry ( Rabiet et al, 2006 ; Matamoros et al, 2009 ; Payán et al, 2011 ; Madrakian et al, 2013 ; Asadi et al, 2015 ; Durán-Álvarez et al, 2015 ; Madikizela & Chimuka, 2017a ; Madikizela & Chimuka, 2017b ; García-Herrero et al, 2019 ; Khazri et al, 2019 ; Ma et al, 2019 ; Mandaric et al, 2019 ; Dionísio et al, 2020 ; Maraqa et al, 2020 ). In the preconcentration and enrichment step, various extraction and concentration techniques were employed, such as solid phase extraction ( Maraqa et al, 2020 ), electro-membrane extraction ( Payán et al, 2011 ), and Vortex-assisted surfactant-enhanced emulsification microextraction based on solidification of floating organic droplets ( Asadi et al, 2015 ). These extraction methods made it possible to accurately identify naproxen in wastewater samples at concentrations as low as ppb.…”

“…Wastewater samples were analyzed for naproxen drug using an automated extraction equipment from Horizon Technology SPE-DEX 4790, (Salem, United States), using previously reported extraction steps ( Meetani et al, 2019 ; Maraqa et al, 2020 ). The Atlantic ® HLB-M disks with N-vinylpyrrolidone and divinylbenzene sorbents were used.…”

Efeitos ecotoxicológicos de cetoconazol combinado a microplásticos virgens e envelhecidos em >i<Daphnia similis>/i<

“…Em estações de tratamento de esgoto a concentração do fármaco foi verificada a partir de 6,7 ng.L -1 na África do Sul, uma média mensal de 348 ng.L -1 na Alemanha, e 143 µg.L -1 em efluentes de estações na Bélgica (Assress et al, 2020;Noth et al, 2018;Steene e Lambert, 2008). Um estudo realizado nos Emirados Árabes obteve a concentração de 109 ng.L -1 em amostra de afluente, e apontou que após os tratamentos primário e secundário a eficiência de remoção de CTZ variou entre 30 a 70% somente (Maraqa et al, 2020).…”