Pharmaceutical Wastewater Treatment by Electrooxidation Method

Abstract

Advancement in medical science over years has led to bulk production and consumption of pharmaceutical compounds all over the world. Antibiotics, particularly have become an indispensable part of human and animal health systems, which are intended to treat bacterial infections. As per a report published in 2018, over a period of fifteen years (2000 2015), antibiotic consumption in India increased by 103%. Moreover, India was the largest consumer of antibiotics in the world in 2010, with cephalosporins, broad-spectrum penicillins and fluoroquinolones among the top three categories of antibiotics being consumed by Indians Such large production and intake of antibiotics has led to their occurrence and accumulation in aquatic environment. Scientific communities worldwide have conducted comprehensive studies and reported occurrence of antibiotics in effluents from waste water treatment plants, sewage treatment plants, sea water, river water, lakes and ground water, which proved the incapability of conventional treatment technologies to remove antibiotics. This alarming issue requires immediate attention due to growing antibiotic resistance in native bacterial population. Over the years, this problem has worsened in India, leading to highest number of deaths caused by antibiotic resistance. Electro-oxidation (EO) has fetched much attention of researchers in past two decades. EO is a type of electrochemical AOP, which utilizes strong oxidant species ( OH, H2O2, O3) generated on anode for pollutant degradation in a much simpler equipment and without involvement of any hazardous chemicals. Moreover, it is an environmentally benign technology as no sludge generation takes place.