Page 153 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

134 Life Cycle Assessment of Wastewater Treatment

On-site reduction can be accomplished by profoundly understanding the proce-
dure, examination of all the stages, and recognizing the contaminations to be dis-
charged. With this profound understanding, an innovative recovery method such as
films can be connected at the source of toxin entry, the recovered material can be
used, and the concentrated waste can be treated using other treatment advances for
safe transfer. Along these lines, noteworthy regard can be given to the waste made
and along these lines making the system useful.
There are two possible reasons for the low occurrence of pharmaceutical products
in the effluent of WWTPs. One is the absence of microbes equipped for metabolizing
them or their low metabolic activity. Another is the low bioavailability of pharma-
ceutical products when their concentration has diminished to a certain level. Thus,
more reviews are needed to determine the correct reasons and to provide potential
techniques to manage the removal of low levels of pharmaceutical products from
wastewater.

7.7 CONCLUSION

To ensure the quality of surface water, there is a great necessity to enhance the
waste-water treatment rate to reduce immediate release. At times, pharmaceutical
products can be identified in the source water of drinking water treatment plants or
even in tap water. It is urgent to secure the water sources from pollution by pharma-
ceutical by-products.
The removal of pharmaceutical products during a biological treatment system
can be affected by many factors, such as the composition of the pharmaceuti-
cal products, the pre-treatment system, the microbial community existing in the
activated sludge system, and the environmental conditions as well as operational
conditions. Thus, the biological treatment system, as the most widely used treat-
ment process, should be improved to meet the demand for dealing with wastewater
containing pharmaceutical products. To increase the ability of WWTPs to treat
wastewater containing pharmaceutical products, more attention should be paid to
the following points.

• The impact of the composition of pharmaceutical products on the removal
efficiency of pharmaceutical products ought to be considered in light of
the fact that these products have distinctive physiochemical properties and
biodegradability. In light of the arrangement of pharmaceutical products,
a specific process ought to be used. For example, a long pressure-driven
maintenance time can be used for wastewater containing high levels of bio-
degradable pharmaceutical products.
• It is important to better understand the degradation pathway, which would
be helpful in the enhancement of the biodegradation of pharmaceutical
products during wastewater treatment. Besides, despite the centralization
of pharmaceutical items, the coordinated effort among biomass and phar-
maceutical items should investigate the location of the key segment that
controls the biodegradation of pharmaceutical items.