Application of Ionizing Radiations in Conjunction with Biological Treatment for the Degradation of Pharmaceutical Effluents

Abstract

Due to rapid urbanization and steep population growth, the advancement in medical field has dramatically increased the consumption of pharmaceuticals in developing country like India. Pharmaceutical compounds are a group of man-made chemicals of utmost concern, as they may infuse into our environment. During pharmaceutical manufacturing, high volume of clean water is consumed with the generation of enormous volumes of complex and hazardous wastewater. In most of the existing pharmaceutical industry, the dilute aqueous streams from the plants are generally treated by conventional biological treatment. However, these treatment processes are ineffective in removal of the persistent and biological resistant pharmaceutical contaminants. In addition, evaporation technique is used to treat the refractory and high strength effluents which is energy and cost intensive process. Thus, there is stringent requirement to employ methods and technologies to treat wastewater in order to enhance its reuse or recyclability. In this regard, advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are considered to be competent and effective approach, which is based on the generation of reactive radical species i.e., hydroxyl radical (HO ). Among various AOPs, Fenton and photo-assisted Fenton processes have been regarded as an efficient treatment for the degradation of pharmaceuticals and there is growing interest in the applications of heterogeneous Fenton-like processes using iron oxides and other naturally occurring minerals. Radiolytic degradation process using ionizing radiations i.e., gamma radiation and high electron beam (E-beam) have received much attention due to their ability to degrade recalcitrant organic contaminants without use of any additional oxidant and chemicals. Thus, the present study was aimed to explain the degradation of selected pharmaceuticals viz.