A Practical Approach for Treatment of APIs and EDCs from Pharmaceutical Wastewater

Effective treatment of wastewater from pharmaceutical manufacturing operations containing Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) has become a serious concern. The treatment system used for removing and stabilizing recalcitrant organic compounds in API consists of: (1) Neutralization of wastewater from the Diazotation process; (2) Flow Equalization and Mixing; (3) Micro-filtration using Fundabac Filters; (4) pH adjustment and treatment of the filtered wastewater using Fenton’s Reagent; (5) Coagulation, flocculation and settling in a Lamella Plate Settler, and (6) biological treatment using the fixed-film MBBR process. The chemical pre-treatment was effective in breaking down the API compound. Chemical treatment also removed a significant portion of the organic nitrogen, TOC, COD and BOD7. Subsequent fixed film biological treatment using the MBBR was able to reduce additional organic nitrogen, TOC, COD and BOD7 significantly bring down the concentration below effluent discharge limit. Source: WEFTEC Proceedings 2009