LE3 .A278 2016

2016

Tong, Anthony

Acadia University

Bachelor of Science

Honours

Chemistry

Chemistry

The presence of pharmaceuticals in wastewater, and their subsequent release into the environment have attracted growing public concern. Although studies have been performed to detect pharmaceuticals in wastewater effluents, little research has been conducted to assess the efficiency of pharmaceutical removal using different treatment technologies. To assess the removal efficiencies of pharmaceuticals from wastewater, samples taken from wastewater treatment plants in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were analysed for 12 of the top 20 pharmaceuticals sold in Canada, and 2 metabolites. Pharmaceutical concentrations were quantified, and average removal efficiencies of pharmaceuticals were calculated at the 95% confidence level. The average pharmaceutical removal efficiencies for 9 technologies: aerated lagoon, extended aeration, facultative lagoon, membrane bioreactor, modified secondary, oxidation ditch, primary treatment, rotating biological contactor and sequencing batch reactor technologies, were determined to be 95.1±0.3%, 87±1%, 94±4%, 97%, 82±4%, 93.8±0.6%, -23±6%, 87.4±0.4%, and 75±4% respectively. The negative removal efficiency of primary treatment was due to sampling uncertainty introduced by several hours of retention time. Further experiments were performed to assess dissolved oxygen, chemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids, colour, and turbidity of the samples. The results help establish fundamental knowledge for studying pharmaceuticals in wastewater treatment, where improvements need to be made for better preventing pharmaceuticals from releasing into the environment

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:1457