Removal of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) from Wastewater – a review of existing treatment solutions

This paper discusses the process development work and full-scale performance of advanced treatment using ozone to remove Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs). This paper summarizes pilot-and full-scale results taken from selected projects installed at Pharmaceutical Industry, hospitals and municipal waste water treatment plants. The plant treating pharmaceutical waste water is located in Ireland. This facility is among the first full-scale pharmaceutical manufacturing sites to build and operate a treatment system specifically designed to remove APIs from industrial wastewater. The major unit processes at the WWTP include: (1) equalization and pH control; (2) biological treatment; (3) membrane filtration and (4) ozone oxidation prior to discharge to a local Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTW). The effluent is suitable for reuse as make-up water for cooling towers. Although the biological treatment and membrane filtration has the ability to remove most of the API’s, this paper shows the effect of ozone and how it relates to the successful removal of active estrogen in the wastewater; in which MBR has little to no effect. This paper also focus on the relationship between the two unit processes (MBR + ozone) when operated in series to increase the efficiency of the full-scale operation and optimize the effective ozone dosage. The process combination MBR + ozone is selected as BAT for the treatment of hospital waste water. The oxidation with ozone is an efficient solution to implement in the effluent of municipal waste water treatment plants to reduce APIs.