Adsorption of Diclofenac, Sulfamethoxazole and Levofloxacin with Powdered Activated Carbon

Author(s):  
Erki Lember ◽  
Karin Pachel ◽  
Enn Loigu

The presence of pharmaceutical residues in the receiving waterbodies of wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) and in the environment has become a global concern. We can now say for certain that, having metabolised in our bodies, partially modified or unmodified pharmaceuticals will reach WWTP. However, WWTP are not designed for the removal of such com-pounds. Only a small fraction of pharmaceuticals decompose during biological treatment or are adsorbed in sediment. There-fore, it is essential to find a treatment process that is capable of removing pharmaceutical residues. The aim of the present study was to research the removal of three pharmaceuticals found in the environment, namely diclofenac (DCF), sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and levofloxacin (LFX), through the use of powdered activated carbon (PAC). To this end, adsorption tests were con-ducted where the adsorption capacity was estimated according to the adsorbent dose and the residence time of the process. LFX had the highest adsorption rate: the removal effectiveness was 77% in a residence time of 5 minutes and in 60 minutes a stable indicator was achieved whereby 94% of LFX had become adsorbed. The worst adsorption property was observed for SMX, as 68% of SMX was adsorbed in a residence time of 60 minutes. According to the conducted tests, the Freundlich adsorption isotherms and constants characterising the adsorption were found where the DCF K was 23.8, the SMX K was 34.3 and the LFX K was 106.1. This test demonstrated that the pharmaceuticals selected for the experiment could easily be subjected to adsorption processes and could be removed by means of PAC.

1998 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 35-43
Author(s):  
Makoto Ohnishi ◽  
Yutaka Okuno ◽  
Naoki Ohkuma

A wastewater reclamation system using a rotating membrane UF module has been studied by adding a powdered activated carbon to a biological treatment process to remove the organic colored matter. In this system, a powdered activated carbon dosage of 50 mg/l, and retention time of 4.5 hours have been required to stably obtain a treated water with a color of less than 5 degrees. It was found that the activated sludge dewaterability could be improved by adding the powdered activated carbon and the rotating membrane UF module could operate at a set flux of 1.0 m3/m2·d for about one and half years.


2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marion Woermann ◽  
Julios Armand Kontchou ◽  
Bernd Sures

Abstract Background In order to protect aquatic environments and to reduce the presence of micropollutants in the global water cycle, wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) often implement an additional treatment step. One of the most effective measures is the use of powdered activated carbon (PAC) as an adsorbent for micropollutants. This method provides sufficient elimination rates for several micropollutants and has been successfully employed in many WWTPs. Despite this success, there might be a drawback as the retention of the PAC in the WWTP can be challenging and losses of micropollutant-loaded PAC into the aquatic environment may occur. Upon emission, micropollutant-loaded PAC is expected to settle to the benthic zone of receiving waters, where sediment-dwelling organisms may ingest these particles. Therefore, the present study investigated possible adverse effects of micropollutant-loaded PAC from a WWTP as compared to unloaded (native) and diclofenac-loaded PAC on the sediment-dwelling annelid Lumbriculus variegatus. Results Native PAC induced the strongest effects on growth (measured as biomass) and reproduction of the annelids. The corresponding medium effective concentrations (EC50) were 1.7 g/kg and 1.8 g/kg, respectively. Diclofenac-loaded PAC showed lower effects with an EC50 of 2.5 g/kg for growth and EC50 of 3.0 g/kg for reproduction. Although tested at the same concentrations, the micropollutant-loaded PAC from the WWTP did not lead to obvious negative effects on the endpoints investigated for L.variegatus and only a slight trend of a reduced growth was detected. Conclusion We did not detect harmful effects on L. variegatus caused by the presence of MP-loaded PAC from a WWTP which gives an auspicious perspective for PAC as an advanced treatment option.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 2500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shun-hwa Lee ◽  
Yeon-jung Cho ◽  
Miran Lee ◽  
Byung-Dae Lee

We surveyed the variation in perfluorinated compound (PFC) concentrations entering urban wastewater treatment plants and then designed an optimal PFCs treatment method based on a pilot test. The PFCs influent concentration was found to be affected by the types of industries and operating rate. The concentration of PFCs in the wastewater treatment effluent was slightly lower than that of the influent. Thus, PFCs had not been adequately removed by the existing biological treatments. The pilot test results showed that about 10% of PFCs was removed by coagulation and precipitation, and the ozone and chlorine test showed that few, if any, PFCs were removed regardless of the oxidant dose. The activated carbon adsorption test showed that the removal significantly increased with empty bed contact time, with about a 60% removal in five minutes and over 90% removal in over 15 minutes. Therefore, a more stable and higher PFCs removal would result from continuous oxidation processes, such as ozone and adsorption processes involving activated carbon, rather than a single biological treatment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 11760
Author(s):  
María Alejandra Décima ◽  
Simone Marzeddu ◽  
Margherita Barchiesi ◽  
Camilla Di Marcantonio ◽  
Agostina Chiavola ◽  
...  

Carbamazepine (CBZ), one of the most used pharmaceuticals worldwide and a Contaminant of Emerging Concern, represents a potential risk for the environment and human health. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are a significant source of CBZ to the environment, polluting the whole water cycle. In this review, the CBZ presence and fate in the urban water cycle are addressed, with a focus on adsorption as a possible solution for its removal. Specifically, the scientific literature on CBZ removal by activated carbon and its possible substitute Biochar, is comprehensively scanned and summed up, in view of increasing the circularity in water treatments. CBZ adsorption onto activated carbon and biochar is analyzed considering several aspects, such as physicochemical characteristics of the adsorbents, operational conditions of the adsorption processes and adsorption kinetics and isotherms models. WWTPs usually show almost no removal of CBZ (even negative), whereas removal is witnessed in drinking water treatment plants through advanced treatments (even >90%). Among these, adsorption is considered one of the preferable methods, being economical and easier to operate. Adsorption capacity of CBZ is influenced by the characteristics of the adsorbent precursors, pyrolysis temperature and modification or activation processes. Among operational conditions, pH shows low influence on the process, as CBZ has no charge in most pH ranges. Differently, increasing temperature and rotational speed favor the adsorption of CBZ. The presence of other micro-contaminants and organic matter decreases the CBZ adsorption due to competition effects. These results, however, concern mainly laboratory-scale studies, hence, full-scale investigations are recommended to take into account the complexity of the real conditions.


2000 ◽  
Vol 42 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 205-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.-R. Lim ◽  
H.-Y. Hu ◽  
N. Goto ◽  
K. Fujie

The treatment characteristics of concentrated p-phenol sulfonic acid (PSA) wastewater in a submerged bioreactor and a solid phase bioreactor packed with ACP particles (polyvinyl alcohol particles coated with powered activated carbon) were compared experimentally. The changes in biomass and microbial community with the degradation of PSA at both bioreactors were also evaluated using microbial quinones as an index. Greater than 95% of influent PSA was mineralized at the solid phase bioreactor under the volumetric loading of PSA ranging from 0.3 to 1.8 kg-C·m-3·d-1 at the steady state, but less than 10% of the influent PSA was mineralized in the submerged bioreactor. The solid phase aerobic biological treatment process was more effective for the treatment of concentrated refractory chemicals such as PSA than the submerged bioreactor. The dominant quinone species in the solid phase bioreactor were ubiquinone-10 and menaquinone-8(H4), while those in the submerged bioreactor were ubiquinone-8 and menaquinone-8. This suggests hat different microbes had contributed to the degradation in the two bioreactors.


2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Am Jang ◽  
Jong-Tae Jung ◽  
Hayoung Kang ◽  
Hyung-Soo Kim ◽  
Jong-Oh Kim

We evaluate the applicability of a reverse osmosis (RO) system that combines powdered activated carbon (PAC) and ultrafiltration (UF) to treat the effluent discharged from tannery wastewater treatment plants. Conventional treatment processes such as neutralization, clariflocculation, and biological processes are used to clean the effluent before feeding to the PAC and UF combined RO system. The efficiency of the combined system was evaluated using the chemical oxygen demand Mn (CODMn), color, pH, turbidity, total nitrogen, total phosphate, and conductivity. The PAC was effective in greatly reducing the CODMn and color. The turbidity and silt density index of the UF permeate satisfied the water quality indices required for the RO feed. The RO system was constantly maintained at approximately 75% RO recovery, and the RO permeate satisfied the water quality requirements for reusing the processed water. Therefore, the PAC-UF combined RO system can be used to process effluent discharged from tannery wastewater treatment plants for reuse.


1999 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 191-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Nicolet ◽  
U. Rott

The use and recirculation of powdered activated carbon (PAC) as an advanced treatment for colour removal in municipal wastewater treatment plants is presented. Studied wastewaters consist of domestic effluents with a high portion of dyehouse residual waters. The particularity of the treatment is that PAC is not disposed of before being recirculated several times. Therefore, it enables the use of a great part of the total adsorption capacity of the PAC. A positive side effect is that halogenated and refractory organic compounds, which are not degraded by micro-organisms in a conventional municipal wastewater treatment plant, are removed too. This paper describes results which were obtained in batch experiments and in a pilot plant during two years of observation, and concludes with advantages and drawbacks of this technology.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farooq Sher ◽  
Sania Zafar Iqbal ◽  
Tahir Rasheed ◽  
Kashif Hanif ◽  
Jasmina Sulejmanović ◽  
...  

Abstract In this research an electrochemical technique in combination with powdered activated carbon (PAC) for the removal of micropollutants by adsorption as an advanced stage purification step from effluents of pilot plant wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). The effluents of sedimentation tank comprised of wastewater plus PAC (WWPAC). The pilot plant mainly consists of two parts; the first one consists of electrocoagulation (EC) reactor and the second consists of electrophoretic deposition (EPD) discs and electroflotation (EF) setup. The electrocoagulation (EC) reactor is a fiber box consisting of two chambers and thirty four plates of one material (either Fe or Al) on the whole in one EC reactor while one cell has seventeen plates. Both types of electrodes have been tested with the outflow of sedimentation tank. The outflow from the sedimentation tank has been entered into the EC reactor for the determination of EC reactor efficacy for the successful accomplishment of EC process at the designed pilot plant for WW treatment. The effect of different operational parameters; PAC dosage (20 mg), electrode nature (Fe and Al), current density (0.34–2.02 A/m2) has been studied to find out the optimum conditions. Sludge volume index (SVI) of the sludge, thermogravimetric (TG), differential thermal analyses (DTA) and particle size distribution (PSD) of the flocs generated after the EC process has also been studied. The turbidity, pH and conductivity of effluents before and after EC treatment has also been carried out. This pilot plant research gave promising results for future work in advance wastewater treatment direction.


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