IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i4p2991-d1060286.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Elimination of Pharmaceutical Agents with Microbiological Treatment from Municipal Sewage

Author

Listed:
  • Gábor Tóth

    (Nyírségvíz Zrt., Tó Str. 5., H-4401 Nyíregyháza, Hungary)

  • Zoltán Veres

    (Nyírségvíz Zrt., Tó Str. 5., H-4401 Nyíregyháza, Hungary)

  • Gyula Lakatos

    (Department of Ecology, University of Debrecen, Egyetem Sqr. 1, H-4032 Debrecen, Hungary)

  • Sándor Balázsy

    (Balázsy Bt., Jósa A. Str. 10, H-4400 Nyíregyháza, Hungary)

Abstract

Pharmaceutical agents accumulate in wastewater after consumption, but the conventional sewage treatment process is unable to remove them completely. The occurrence of certain compounds in the environment brings forth serious problems even at low concentrations. In this study, the microbiological elimination ability of four non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)—ibuprofen, naproxen, ketoprofen and diclofenac—were investigated under laboratory, pilot and plant conditions. Mixed cultures from environmental matrices presumably have the ability to reduce the concentration of target agents effectively. According to our analytical measurements, certain mixed cultures gained from natural habitats were even capable of reducing the amount of diclofenac efficiently, after being enriched to a 10 9 colony-forming unit—CFU/mL scale, and inoculated in adequate quantity. Target NSAIDs were detected at µg/L levels in both influents and effluents from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The results showed that inoculated conventional activated sludge sewage treatment technologies have high efficiency for removing ibuprofen, ketoprofen and naproxen. The diclofenac-specific bacteria mix exhibited mild but positive removal efficiency compared to the control plant. This removal ability is also influenced by the hydraulic retention time (HRT).

Suggested Citation

  • Gábor Tóth & Zoltán Veres & Gyula Lakatos & Sándor Balázsy, 2023. "The Elimination of Pharmaceutical Agents with Microbiological Treatment from Municipal Sewage," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-12, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:4:p:2991-:d:1060286
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/4/2991/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/4/2991/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:4:p:2991-:d:1060286. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.