Applicability of Organic Polymer for Pharmaceutical Removal

Abstract

Pharmaceuticals have become one of the main concerns in environmental pollution nowadays especially when it comes to water treatment. Pharmaceuticals are not sufficiently removed in conventional sewage treatment plants and in order to prevent the spreading of contamination to groundwater and soils, the emission of some pharmaceuticals, which are considered to be priority compounds, is regulated through the European Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC). The availability of advanced treatment techniques improves the removal of pharmaceuticals from wastewater. The introduction of organic polymers applied as coagulant and/or flocculant for wastewater treatment helps in reducing the quantities of pharmaceuticals in a more cost-effective way. The process described in this paper is based on the addition of organic polymers during the primary sedimentation process of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Jar test studies were carried out with cationic polymers to study the removal of pharmaceuticals from different water samples (filtered wastewater and raw wastewater). All water samples were spiked with a mixture of pharmaceuticals, resulting in a total concentration of 2-15μg/L. In raw influent wastewater, three out of thirteen spiked pharmaceuticals showed a removal exceeding 85%, seven showed a removal between 80 and 60% and the rest between 50 to 30%. Filtered wastewater displayed almost similar results but showed a slightly higher removal of diclofenac, gemfibrozil and sulfamethoxazole compared to raw wastewater.