Drugs of abuse in surface and tap waters of the Tagus River basin: Heterogeneous photo-Fenton process is effective in their degradation

Impact of approach used to determine removal levels of drugs of abuse during wastewater treatment

“…Overall removals of cocaine, benzoylecgonine and amphetaminetype stimulants were generally in the range of those reported by others even though the latter are known to be very sensitive to different treatment technologies and often exhibit negative removals during treatment (Bijlsma et al, 2012;Boleda et al, 2007;Bones et al, 2007;Loganathan et al, 2009;Metcalfe et al, 2010;Postigo et al, 2008aPostigo et al, ,b, 2010Valcárcel et al, 2012;Yargeau et al, in press). The discrepancies with the removals reported in literature and those observed in this study may be due to various factors such as the type of treatment process used at the treatment plant under investigation (Joss et al, 2006;Kanda et al, 2003), the solids and hydraulic retention times (Clara et al, 2005;Kreuzinger et al, 2004;Tauxe-Wuersch et al, 2005), the dilution of influent wastewater by rain events during the sampling period (Joss et al, 2006;Tauxe-Wuersch et al, 2005;Ternes, 1998) and very likely by the calculation used to obtain the removals themselves.…”

Ozonation of wastewater: Removal and transformation products of drugs of abuse

“…Recently however, several classes of micropollutants have been detected in wastewaters but the treatment systems are not equipped to remove them and they are therefore discharged to receiving waters either unaltered or as metabolites, making wastewater effluents important point sources of contamination (Pedrouzo et al, 2011b;Valcárcel et al, 2012).…”

“…It is clear from the studies that have identified these compounds in wastewater effluents and surface waters at the nanogram and in some cases, microgram per liter level, that they and many of their main human metabolites, are ubiquitous in the environment (Baker and Kasprzyk-Hordern, 2011;Bartelt-Hunt et al, 2009;Bijlsma et al, 2012Bijlsma et al, , 2013Castiglioni et al, 2006a;Gheorghe et al, 2008;González-Mariño et al, 2011;Hummel et al, 2006;Jones-Lepp et al, 2004;Kasprzyk-Hordern et al, 2009;Metcalfe et al, 2010;Pedrouzo et al, 2011a;Postigo et al, 2011;Zuccato et al, 2005). In fact, these compounds, like many other contaminants of emerging concern have been shown to be resistant to physicochemical and biological treatment at WWTPs and are therefore continuously introduced into the aquatic environment (Boleda et al, 2009;Bolong et al, 2009;Chiaia et al, 2008;Huerta-Fontela et al, 2008;Pal et al, 2013;Postigo et al, 2010;Valcárcel et al, 2012;Yargeau et al, 2013;Zuccato et al, 2008). These compounds have also been detected in surface waters in many countries (Boleda et al, 2011;Gonzalez-Marino et al, 2010;Martínez Bueno et al, 2011;Terzic et al, 2010;Valcárcel et al, 2012) and since illicit drugs have psychoactive properties, their presence in the aquatic environment raises concern (Huerta-Fontela et al, 2012).…”

“…In fact, these compounds, like many other contaminants of emerging concern have been shown to be resistant to physicochemical and biological treatment at WWTPs and are therefore continuously introduced into the aquatic environment (Boleda et al, 2009;Bolong et al, 2009;Chiaia et al, 2008;Huerta-Fontela et al, 2008;Pal et al, 2013;Postigo et al, 2010;Valcárcel et al, 2012;Yargeau et al, 2013;Zuccato et al, 2008). These compounds have also been detected in surface waters in many countries (Boleda et al, 2011;Gonzalez-Marino et al, 2010;Martínez Bueno et al, 2011;Terzic et al, 2010;Valcárcel et al, 2012) and since illicit drugs have psychoactive properties, their presence in the aquatic environment raises concern (Huerta-Fontela et al, 2012). In addition, the potential for adverse effects exists due to the presence of these and other compounds as complex mixtures in the environment and multi-generational exposure of aquatic organisms (Kantiani et al, 2010).…”

“…These treatment systems have been shown to efficiently remove compounds that remain in wastewater after secondary treatment, such as: pharmaceuticals, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, iodinated X-ray contrast media and musk fragrances (Huber et al, 2003;Larcher and Yargeau, 2013;McDowell et al, 2005;Nakada et al, 2007;Rodayan et al, 2010;Ternes et al, 2003;Zwiener and Frimmel, 2000). Due to the strong oxidizing power of hydroxyl radicals, AOPs such as photocatalysis, ozonation and photo-Fenton systems are of particular interest for the removal or transformation of contaminants of emerging concern (Akmehmet Balcıoğlu et al, 2003;Boleda et al, 2011;Comninellis et al, 2008;Gogate and Pandit, 2004;Nasuhoglu et al, 2012;Valcárcel et al, 2012).…”