Removal of Pharmaceuticals from Water by Adsorption and Advanced Oxidation Processes: State of the Art and Trends
Source abstract
Abstract
Pharmaceutical products have become a necessary part of life. Several studies have demonstrated that indirect exposure of humans to pharmaceuticals through the water could cause negative effects. Raw sewage and wastewater effluents are the major sources of pharmaceuticals found in surface waters and drinking water. Therefore, it is important to consider and characterize the efficiency of pharmaceutical removal during wastewater and drinking-water treatment processes. Various treatment options have been investigated for the removal/reduction of drugs (e.g., antibiotics, NSAIDs, analgesics) using conventional or biological treatments, such as activated sludge processes or bio-filtration, respectively. The efficiency of these processes ranges from 20–90%. Comparatively, advanced wastewater treatment processes, such as reverse osmosis, ozonation and advanced oxidation technologies, can achieve higher removal rates for drugs. Pharmaceuticals and their metabolites undergo natural attenuation by adsorption and solar oxidation. Therefore, pharmaceuticals in water sources even at trace concentrations would have undergone removal through biological processes and, if applicable, combined adsorption and photocatalytic degradation wastewater treatment processes. This review provides an overview of the conventional and advanced technologies for the removal of pharmaceutical compounds from water sources. It also sheds light on the key points behind adsorption and photocatalysis.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline
Research context
OpenAlex topics: Pharmaceutical and Antibiotic Environmental Impacts · Analytical chemistry methods development · Advanced Photocatalysis Techniques
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
Laboratory of Environmental Engineering and Ecotechnology, National School of Engineers (ENIS), Sfax University, Route de la Soukra km 4, Po. Box n° 1175, 3038 Sfax, Tunisia
Higher Institute of the Sciences and Techniques of Waters, Gabes University, 6072 Zrig Gabes, Tunisia
Aix-Marseille University, CNRS, IRD, INRAE, Coll France, CEREGE, CEDEX, 13454 Aix-en-Provence, France
International Water Research Institute, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, 43150 Benguerir, Morocco
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