Removal of Pharmaceutical Compounds in Conventional Wastewater Treatment Plant

,; ,; ,; ,; ,

Research article

Journal of the Korean Society for Environmental Analysis 2012;15(2):98-106.

전통적인 생물학적 하수처리공정에 의한 의약물질 처리

엄정훈¹, 장태수², 홍영민², 박재은², 김현욱²

¹서울시 보건환경연구원
²서울시립대학교

Abstract

The fates of a total of 30 pharmaceutical compounds, which have been frequently administrated, in a local wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) were evaluated. The main process of the WWTP was the conventional activated sludge. Wastewater and sludge samples were collected from each unit process of the plant. The collected samples were extracted and quantitated following the procedure proposed by the National Institute of Environmental Science. The quantitation of residual pharmaceuticals were performed using HPLC-MS-MS. In general, the conventional biological treatment process did not seem to be effective in treating antibacterial compounds. It should be noted that the sampling for the study was performed once. To draw a more concrete conclusion out, more sampling events should be designed to have more data.

Key Words: residual pharmaceuticals, personal care products, wastewater treatment plant, LC-MS-MS