Determination of pharmaceutical residues and assessment of their removal efficiency at the Daugavgriva municipal wastewater treatment plant in Riga, Latvia

2016 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 387-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Reinholds ◽  
O. Muter ◽  
I. Pugajeva ◽  
J. Rusko ◽  
I. Perkons ◽  
...  

Pharmaceutical products (PPs) belong to emerging contaminants that may accumulate along with other chemical pollutants in wastewaters (WWs) entering industrial and/or urban wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). In the present study, the technique of ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to Orbitrap high-resolution mass spectrometry (Orbitrap-HRMS) was applied for the analysis of 24 multi-class PPs in WW samples collected at different technological stages of Daugavgriva WWTP located in Riga, Latvia. Caffeine and acetaminophen levels in the range of 7,570–11,403 ng/L and 810–1,883 ng/L, respectively, were the predominant compounds among 19 PPs determined in the WW. The results indicate that aerobic digestion in biological ponds was insufficiently effective to degrade most of the PPs (reduction efficiency <0–50.0%) with the exception of four PPs that showed degradation efficiency varying from 55.0 to 99.9%. Tests of short-term chemical and enzymatic hydrolysis for PP degradation in WW samples were performed, and the results reflected the complexity of different degradation mechanisms and physicochemical transformations of PPs. The toxicological studies of WW impact on Daphnia magna indicated gradual reduction of the total toxicity through the treatment stages at the WWTP.

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Gagnon ◽  
André Lajeunesse

Pharmaceutical substances represent a risk for aquatic environments and their potential impacts on the receiving environment are poorly understood. Municipal effluents are important sources of contaminants including common pharmaceuticals like anti-inflammatory and anti-convulsive substances. The removal of pharmaceuticals, particularly those highly soluble can represent a great challenge to conventional wastewater treatment processes. Hydrophilic drugs (<em>e.g.</em> acidic drugs) have properties that can highly influence removal efficiencies of treatment plants. The performance of different wastewater treatment processes for the removal of specific pharmaceutical products that are expected to be poorly removed was investigated. The obtained results were compared to inherent properties of the studied substances. Clofibric acid, carbamazepine, diclofenac, ibuprofen and naproxen were largely found in physicochemical primary-treated effluents at concentrations ranging from 77 to 2384 ng/L. This treatment type showed removal yields lower than 30%. On the other hand, biological treatments with activated sludge under aerobic conditions resulted in much better removal rates (&gt;50% for 5 of the 8 studied substances). Interestingly, this latter type of process showed evidence of selectivity with respect to the size (R2=0.7388), solubility (R2=0.6812), and partitioning (R2=0.9999) of the removed substances; the smallest and least sorbed substances seemed to be removed at better rates, while the persistent carbamazepine (392 ng/L) and diclofenac (66 ng/L) were poorly removed (&lt;10%) after biological treatment. In the case of treatment by aerated lagoons, the most abundant substances were the highly soluble hydroxy-ibuprofen (350-3321 ng/L), followed by naproxen (42-413 n/L) and carbamazepine (254-386 ng/L). In order to assess the impacts of all these contaminants of various properties on the environment and human health, we need to better understand the chemical and physical transformations occurring at the treatment plant and in the receiving waters.


1999 ◽  
Vol 40 (7) ◽  
pp. 55-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed F. Hamoda ◽  
Ibrahim A. Al-Ghusain ◽  
Ahmed H. Hassan

Proper operation of municipal wastewater treatment plants is important in producing an effluent which meets quality requirements of regulatory agencies and in minimizing detrimental effects on the environment. This paper examined plant dynamics and modeling techniques with emphasis placed on the digital computing technology of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). A backpropagation model was developed to model the municipal wastewater treatment plant at Ardiya, Kuwait City, Kuwait. Results obtained prove that Neural Networks present a versatile tool in modeling full-scale operational wastewater treatment plants and provide an alternative methodology for predicting the performance of treatment plants. The overall suspended solids (TSS) and organic pollutants (BOD) removal efficiencies achieved at Ardiya plant over a period of 16 months were 94.6 and 97.3 percent, respectively. Plant performance was adequately predicted using the backpropagation ANN model. The correlation coefficients between the predicted and actual effluent data using the best model was 0.72 for TSS compared to 0.74 for BOD. The best ANN structure does not necessarily mean the most number of hidden layers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 244-250
Author(s):  
Serhii Protsenko ◽  
◽  
Mykola Kizyeyev ◽  
Olha Novytska ◽  
◽  
...  

The possibility of increasing the efficiency of municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) operation by changing the flow diagram of biological wastewater treatment in aeration tanks at minimum expenses for their reconstruction is shown in the paper on the example of one of the regional centres of Ukraine. The technology of nitri-denitrification of wastewater according to the flow diagram of the two-stage modified Ludzak-Ettinger process is offered for the considered conditions. The distribution of wastewater flows and internal nitrate recycling between the individual stages of this flow diagram has been optimized in order to minimize the residual content of total nitrogen in the treated effluents. Computer dynamic modelling of biochemical processes has proved the high efficiency and reliability of the flow diagram proposed by the authors.


2008 ◽  
Vol 57 (10) ◽  
pp. 1487-1493 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Lindtner ◽  
H. Schaar ◽  
H. Kroiss

During a six-year period the Austrian Benchmarking System was developed. The main objectives of this benchmarking system are the development of process indicators, identification of best performance and determination of cost reduction potentials. Since 2004 this system is operated via an internet platform and automated to a large extent. Every year twenty to thirty treatment plants use the web-based access to this benchmarking platform. The benchmarking procedure comprises data acquisition, data evaluation including reporting and organised exchange of experience for the treatment plant managers. The process benchmarking method links the real costs with four defined main processes and two support processes. For wastewater treatment plants with a design capacity &gt;100,000 PE these processes are further split up into sub-processes. For each (sub-) process the operating costs are attributed to six cost elements. The specific total yearly costs and the yearly operating costs of all (sub-)processes are related to the measured mean yearly pollution load of the plant expressed in population equivalents (PE110: 110 gCOD/d corresponding to 60 g BOD5/d)). The specific capital costs are related to the design capacity (PE). The paper shows the benchmarking results of 6 Austrian plants with a design capacity &gt;100,000 PE representing approximately 30% of the Austrian municipal wastewater treatment plant capacity.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (12) ◽  
pp. 1988-1996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan He ◽  
Yishuang Zhu ◽  
Jinghan Chen ◽  
Minsheng Huang ◽  
Guohua Wang ◽  
...  

The tense deficiency of available land resources is becoming one of the bottlenecks in dealing with wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) management issues.


Membranes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 421
Author(s):  
Dimitra C. Banti ◽  
Michail Tsangas ◽  
Petros Samaras ◽  
Antonis Zorpas

Membrane bioreactor (MBR) systems are connected to several advantages compared to the conventional activated sludge (CAS) units. This work aims to the examination of the life cycle environmental impact of an MBR against a CAS unit when treating municipal wastewater with similar influent loading (BOD = 400 mg/L) and giving similar high-quality effluent (BOD < 5 mg/L). The MBR unit contained a denitrification, an aeration and a membrane tank, whereas the CAS unit included an equalization, a denitrification, a nitrification, a sedimentation, a mixing, a flocculation tank and a drum filter. Several impact categories factors were calculated by implementing the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology, including acidification potential, eutrophication potential, global warming potential (GWP), ozone depletion potential and photochemical ozone creation potential of the plants throughout their life cycle. Real data from two wastewater treatment plants were used. The research focused on two parameters which constitute the main differences between the two treatment plants: The excess sludge removal life cycle contribution—where GWPMBR = 0.50 kg CO2-eq*FU−1 and GWPCAS = 2.67 kg CO2-eq*FU−1 without sludge removal—and the wastewater treatment plant life cycle contribution—where GWPMBR = 0.002 kg CO2-eq*FU−1 and GWPCAS = 0.14 kg CO2-eq*FU−1 without land area contribution. Finally, in all the examined cases the environmental superiority of the MBR process was found.


2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 199-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marketa Julinova ◽  
Jan Kupec ◽  
Roman Slavik ◽  
Maria Vaskova

Abstract A synthetic polymer, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP - E 1201) primarily finds applications in the pharmaceutical and food industries due to its resistance and zero toxicity to organisms. After ingestion, the substance passes through the organism unchanged. Consequently, it enters the systems of municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) without decomposing biologically during the waste treatment process, nor does it attach (through sorption) to particles of activated sludge to any significant extent, therefore, it passes through the system of a WWTP, which may cause the substance to accumulate in the natural environment. For this reason the paper investigates the potential to initiate aerobic biodegradation of PVP in the presence of activated sludge from a municipal wastewater treatment plant. The following agents were selected as the initiators of the biodegradation process - co-substrates: acrylamide, N-acethylphenylalanine and 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidone, a substance with a similar structure to PVP monomer. The biodegradability of PVP in the presence of co-substrates was evaluated on the basis of biological oxygen demand (BOD) as determined via a MicroOxymax O2/CO2/CH4 respirometer. The total substrate concentration in the suspension equaled 400 mg·dm-3, with the ratio between PVP and the cosubstrate being 1:1, while the concentration of the dry activated sludge was 500 mg·dm-3. Even though there was no occurrence of a significant increase in the biodegradation of PVP alone in the presence of a co-substrate, acrylamide appeared to be the most effective type of co-substrate. Nevertheless, a recorded decrease in the slope of biodegradation curves over time may indicate that a process of primary decomposition was underway, which involves the production of metabolites that inhibit activated sludge microorganisms. The resulting products are not identified at this stage of experimentation.


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