Is it better to remove pharmaceuticals in decentralized or conventional wastewater treatment plants? A life cycle assessment comparison

Igos, Elorri; Benetto, Enrico; Venditti, Silvia; Köhler, Christian; Cornelissen, Alex; Moeller, Ruth; Biwer, Arno P.

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.08.096

Cited by 69 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…The reported removals in this investigation are not surprising when considering that the assessed biological treatment system (ST-UFAF) is designed for the removal of conventional parameters such as BOD 5 , COD and TSS, that present concentrations in the level of de mg/L (Ratola et al, 2012;Patiño et al, 2014), but not for the removal of organic micro-contaminants and their metabolites (Igos et al, 2012). The wastewater treatment plants are considered in fact as a retention point and later liberation of PPCPs to the environment (Jelic et al, 2012b;Wang et al, 2015), because the physical and chemical properties of the PPCPs (solubility, volatility, absorbability, absorbability, biodegradability, polarity and stability) vary considerably in wastewater and depend on the operational conditions of the treatment systems (Verlichi et al, 2012;Yunlong et al, 2014).…”

Section: Ppcps Presence In Wastewatermentioning

confidence: 74%

Pharmaceutical and personal care products in domestic wastewater and their removal in anaerobic treatment systems: Septic tank – up flow anaerobic filter.

et al. 2016

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Presencia de productos farmacéuticos y de cuidado personal en aguas residuales domésticas y su eliminación en sistemas de tratamiento anaerobios: tanque séptico -filtro anaerobio de flujo ascendente ABSTRACTIn several countries around the world, Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products (PPCPs) exist in aquatic environments, a fact that increases the awareness within the scientific community with respect to their possible fate and environment effects. This research presents a preliminary monitoring of use, consumption and presence of PPCPs in wastewater from a treatment plant in a rural area of Pereira (Colombia). Domestic sewage is treated in a septic tank followed by an Up-Flow Anaerobic Filter and its effluent is discharged into the Otún River, upstream of the water intake of the supply system of the city. The compounds monitored in this research included ibuprofen, naproxen, diclofenac, aspirin, ketoprofen, caffeine, galaxolide, tonalide and dihydrojasmonate. An adapted method of multi-residue analysis was used, which is based on solid phase extraction with hydrophilic-lipophilic balance cartridges, and determination by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The removal efficiencies demonstrated that the treatment plant could eliminate less than 50 % of dihydrojasmonate, diclofenac and galaxolide existing in wastewater; concentration of aspirin, naproxen and tonalide could only be reduced in 15 %; and caffeine, ibuprofen and ketoprofen were not removed. Results provided basic information to decide over the necessity of complementary treatments for effluents from systems with the mentioned units. Keywords:Medicines, personal care, emerging pollutants, socio-demographic characteristics, domestic wastewater. RESUMENEn muchos países del mundo, los productos farmacéuticos y de cuidado personal (PPCPs) están presentes en el medio acuático, aumentando las preocupaciones entre la comunidad científica respecto a sus posibles destinos y efectos ambientales. Esta investigación presenta un monitoreo preliminar del uso y consumo de PPCPs y su presencia en las aguas residuales de una planta de tratamiento en zona rural de Pereira (Colombia), donde los vertimientos domésticos son tratadas en un sistema tanque séptico-filtro anaerobio y cuyo efluente se vierte en el río Otún antes de la bocatoma del acueducto de la ciudad. Los compuestos monitoreados en esta investigación incluyen ibuprofeno, naproxeno, diclofenaco, aspirina, ketoprofeno, cafeína, galaxolide, tonalida y dihidrojasmonato. Se utilizó un método de análisis multiresiduo adaptado, que se basa en la extracción en fase sólida con cartuchos de balance hydrophiliclipophilic y determinación por cromatografía de gases-espectrometría de masas. La planta de tratamiento pudo eliminar menos del 50 % del dihidrojasmonato, diclofenaco y galaxolida del agua residual; las concentraciones de aspirina, naproxeno y tonalida sólo fueron reducidas en un 15 %, y la cafeína, ibuporfeno y ketoprofeno no fueron removidos. Estos resultados proporcionan información base para decidir sob...

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Section: Ppcps Presence In Wastewatermentioning

confidence: 74%

Pharmaceutical and personal care products in domestic wastewater and their removal in anaerobic treatment systems: Septic tank – up flow anaerobic filter.

et al. 2016

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“…Hence, based on a more accurate understanding of the efficiency of removal, Godin et al (2012) developed a methodology that allows comparing a WWTP scenario and a null option scenario. This more WWT-oriented approach, named net environmental benefit (NEB) or Net Impact as in Igos et al (2012), studies the difference between the direct discharge of wastewater to a water body considered as the null option and a wastewater alternative, as explained in more detail in Section 2.2.4 and in the Supplementary Information e SI (Godin et al, 2012).…”

Section: Contextualisation Of the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Eco-efficiency analysis of Spanish WWTPs using the LCA + DEA method

et al. 2015

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“…The majority of reviewed WWT‐LCAs were conducted in order to assess the environmental trade‐offs of advanced WWT technologies, such as ozonation or ultraviolet irradiation, which are targeted at micropollutants removal, often in reference to a baseline scenario in which no tertiary treatment takes place (Larsen et al ; Igos et al ; Igos et al ). The use of sewage sludge or recycled wastewater for agricultural purposes was also the subject of some of the analyzed case studies (e.g., Muñoz et al ; Hospido et al ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling pharmaceutical emissions and their toxicity‐related effects in life cycle assessment (LCA): A review

Emara¹,

Lehmann²,

Siegert³

et al. 2018

Integr Envir Assess & Manag

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Over the last few decades, worldwide detection of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in aquatic environments and the associated toxicological effects on wildlife and human health have become a matter of public and scientific debate. While life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) models are increasingly used to assess the potential eco-and human-toxicological effects of chemical emissions, few studies have looked into the issue of modeling pharmaceutical emissions specifically and their toxicity-related effects in an LCA context. This paper reviews the state of the art to inventory and characterize API emissions in LCA with the goal to identify relevant gaps and challenges. A search for 208 environmentally relevant APIs in 2 life cycle inventory (LCI) databases revealed a meager representation of this group of chemicals. Similarly, the LCIA model USEtox was found to include characterization factors (CFs) for less than 60 APIs. First approaches to model API emissions in LCA were identified on the basis of an examination of 40 LCA case studies in the pharmaceutical sector and in the field of wastewater treatment. Moreover, CFs for 79 additional APIs, expressing their ecotoxicity and/or human toxicity potential, were gathered from literature. An analysis of the variability of API-CFs in different LCIA models showed a variation of about 2-3 orders of magnitude. Based on the review results, 3 main gaps in the modeling and characterization of API emissions in an LCA context were identified: (1) incomplete modeling of API flows and API emissions along the life cycle of human pharmaceuticals, especially during their use and end-of-life phase, (2) limited API coverage in existing LCIA toxicity models, and (3) missing pharma-specific impact pathways (e.g., endocrine disruption and antibiotic resistance) in existing LCIA models. Recommendations to tackle these gaps are provided, and priority action steps are discussed. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2019;15:6-18. C 2018 SETAC

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Is it better to remove pharmaceuticals in decentralized or conventional wastewater treatment plants? A life cycle assessment comparison

Cited by 69 publications

References 25 publications

Pharmaceutical and personal care products in domestic wastewater and their removal in anaerobic treatment systems: Septic tank – up flow anaerobic filter.

Pharmaceutical and personal care products in domestic wastewater and their removal in anaerobic treatment systems: Septic tank – up flow anaerobic filter.

Eco-efficiency analysis of Spanish WWTPs using the LCA + DEA method

Modeling pharmaceutical emissions and their toxicity‐related effects in life cycle assessment (LCA): A review

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