Occurrence and behavior of pharmaceuticals in sewage treatment plants in eastern China

Juan DU, Yu FAN, Xin QIAN

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PDF(121 KB)
Front. Environ. Sci. Eng. ›› 2015, Vol. 9 ›› Issue (4) : 725-730. DOI: 10.1007/s11783-014-0661-1
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Occurrence and behavior of pharmaceuticals in sewage treatment plants in eastern China

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Abstract

The occurrence and removal efficiency of seven pharmaceuticals (norfloxacin, trimethoprim, roxithromycin, sulfamethoxazole, ibuprofen, diclofenac and carbamazepine) were determined in three sewage treatment plants (STPs) with anaerobic/anoxic/oxic, anoxic/oxic and oxidation ditches processes in Xuzhou City, Eastern China. The results showed that seven pharmaceuticals were detected in the influent samples with concentrations ranging from 93 to 2540 ng·L−1. The removal of these substances among the three different STPs varied from 36 to 84%, with the highest performance obtained by the wastewater treatment works with tertiary treatment (sand filtration). Most of the compounds were removed effectively during biologic treatment while sand filtration treatment also made a contribution to the total elimination of most pharmaceuticals. The efficiency comparison of the three sewage treatment processes showed that the STP which employed anaerobic/anoxic/oxic was more effective to remove pharmaceuticals than the oxidation ditches and anoxic/oxic.

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Keywords

pharmaceutical / anaerobic/anoxic/oxic / oxidation ditch / anoxic/oxic / removal efficiency

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Juan DU, Yu FAN, Xin QIAN. Occurrence and behavior of pharmaceuticals in sewage treatment plants in eastern China. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2015, 9(4): 725‒730 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-014-0661-1

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Acknowledgements

The study was financially supported by Jiangsu Province Environmental Monitoring Research Program (No. 1105) and Jiangsu Province Environmental Protection Research Program (No. 2013033).

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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