Review on bio-removal method of pharmaceutical compounds from hospital wastewater with moving bed reactor (MBBR) technology

Pharmaceutical compounds in wastewater have significantly increased in the last decades due to the current high consumption of pharmaceutical compounds together with the development of new detection technologies, therefore the research on removal of pharmaceutical compounds from wastewater is so important for the scientists. The microbial resistance, chemical persistence and synergistic effects of various pharmaceuticals are a concern. In view of this problem, the treatment of synthetic hospital wastewater containing diclofenac (DFN) and ibuprofen (IBU), two of the most commonly prescribed medicines worldwide, was studied using a moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) by the group of researchers. An aerobic MBBR with packing filling was designed. The type of packing articles are Kaldnes. The controlled parameters were pH between ۶-۸, temperature of ۳۷°C, mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) of ۲۱۰۰ mg/L. The experiments were conducted for four different initial pharmaceutical compounds concentrations: ۲, ۴, ۷ and ۱۰ mg/L, two different hydraulic retention times (HRT): ۵, ۱۰ h and two different amounts of chemical oxygen demands (COD): ۵۰۰, ۱۰۰۰ mg/L. Finally, the results shows that generally, the removal percentage of DFN is higher than IBU in biological removal process by MBBR. The results in different HRTs can be concluded that ۵ h HRT is the optimal time for DFN, while ۱۰ h HRT promises noticeably better IBU removal. In the other hand, results shows that DFN is better removed in the lower COD, while IBU showed better removal in the higher COD.

کلیدواژه ها:

Pharmaceutical compounds ، Wastewater treatment ، Diclofenac (DFN) ، Ibuprofen (IBU) ، Moving bed reactor (MBBR).