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Integrative Advanced Oxidation and Biofiltration for Treating Pharmaceuticals in Wastewater
Author(s) -
Lester Yaal,
Aga Diana S.,
Love Nancy G.,
Singh Randolph R.,
Morrissey Ian,
Linden Karl G.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
water environment research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.356
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1554-7531
pISSN - 1061-4303
DOI - 10.2175/106143016x14504669767454
Subject(s) - effluent , wastewater , biotransformation , biofilter , chemistry , biodegradation , chromatography , degradation (telecommunications) , aeration , filtration (mathematics) , pulp and paper industry , environmental chemistry , waste management , organic chemistry , telecommunications , computer science , engineering , enzyme , statistics , mathematics
Advanced oxidation of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in wastewater produces transformation products (TPs) that are often more biodegradable than the parent compounds. Secondary effluent from a wastewater treatment plant was treated using UV‐based advanced oxidation (LPUV/H 2 O 2 and MPUV/NO 3 ) followed by biological aerated filtration (BAF), and different APIs and their transformation products were monitored. The advanced oxidation processes degraded the APIs by 55–87% (LPUV/H 2 O 2 ) and 58–95% (MPUV/NO 3 ), while minor loss of APIs was achieved in the downstream BAF system. Eleven TPs were detected following oxidation of carbamazepine (5) and iopromide (6); three key TPs were biodegraded in the BAF system. The other TPs remained relatively constant in the BAF. The decrease in UV absorbance (UVA 254 ) of the effluent in the BAF system was linearly correlated to the degradation of the APIs (for the MPUV/NO 3 –BAF), and can be applied to monitor the biotransformation of APIs in biological‐based systems.