Evaluation of the Possibility of Using Hydroponic Cultivations for the Removal of Pharmaceuticals and Endocrine Disrupting Compounds in Municipal Sewage Treatment Plants

Abstract

The problem of the presence of pharmaceuticals and endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) in the environment is closely related to municipal wastewater and in consequence to municipal wastewater treatment plants (MWWTPs) because wastewater is the main way in which these compounds are transferred to the ecosystem. For this reason, the development of cheap, simple but very effective techniques for the removal of such residues from wastewater is very important. In this study, the analysis of the potential of using three new plants: Cyperus papyrus (Papyrus), Lysimachia nemorum (Yellow pimpernel), and Euonymus europaeus (European spindle) by hydroponic cultivation for the removal of 15 selected pharmaceuticals and endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) in an MWWTP is presented. In order to obtain the most reliable data, this study was performed using real WWTP conditions and with the determination of the selected analytes in untreated sewage, treated sewage, and in plant materials. For determining the target compounds in plant materials, an Accelerated Solvent Extraction (ASE)-Solid-Phase Extraction (SPE)-GC-MS(SIM) method was developed and validated. The obtained data proved that the elimination efficiency of the investigated substances from wastewater was in the range of 35.8% for diflunisal to above 99.9% for paracetamol, terbutaline, and flurbiprofen. Lysimachia nemorum was the most effective for the uptake of target compounds among the tested plant species. Thus, the application of constructed wetlands for supporting conventional MWWTPs allowed a significant increase in their removal from the wastewater stream.

Identification of Selected Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Two Different Wastewater Treatment Plant Systems in Poland: A Preliminary Study

“…It has been confirmed that the application of CWs allowed a significant increase in the removal of antibiotics and other medicines from the wastewater [ 34 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 ]. CWs have been also shown to be more efficient in the removal of ARGs than conventional WWTPs [ 36 , 38 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 ].…”

“…The effluent from WWTP1 is transported via a pipeline into the Bay of Gdańsk and discharged 2.3 km away from the coastline. WWTP2, “Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant in Sochaczew”, described in detail by Wolecki et al [ 66 ], represents a system which combines the method of biological wastewater treatment with AS and constructed wetlands. CWs have been implemented in the second stage of wastewater treatment (biological).…”

Evaluation of the Removal of Selected Phthalic Acid Esters (PAEs) in Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants Supported by Constructed Wetlands

“…As mentioned, the chromatographic conditions of the GC-MS measurements of plant extracts are presented in Section 3.6. The developed methods for determining target PAEs in wastewater and plants were validated using working calibration standard solutions and matrix-matched calibration solutions according to the guidelines of the International Vocabulary of Metrology [40] and procedures fully described in our previous papers [41,42] (Section 3.7). The determined validation parameters are presented in Table 3.…”

Special Issue “Pharmaceutical Residues in the Environment”

“…Seven research articles deal with the presence of pharmaceuticals in wastewater samples and evaluate their fate, ecotoxicity and/or elimination in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) equipped with different purification technologies [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ].…”

“…The effectiveness of CWs for the removal of 15 pharmaceuticals and endocrine disrupting compounds in municipal WWTPs was also investigated by Wolecki et al [ 4 ]. For the first time in such a study, three plants, namely Cyperus papyrus (Papyrus), Lysimachia nemorum (Yellow pimpernel) and Euonymus europaeus (European spindle), were taken into account.…”