Department for Health Evidence, Radboud Institute for Health Sciences, Radboudumc, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Department of Electrical Energy Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
Environ Res. 2021 Apr;195:110884. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.110884. Epub 2021 Feb 22.
The aquatic environment becomes increasingly contaminated by anthropogenic pollutants such as pharmaceutical residues. Due to poor biodegradation and continuous discharge of persistent compounds in sewage water samples, pharmaceutical residues might end up in surface waters when not removed. To minimize this pollution, onsite wastewater treatment techniques might complement conventional waste water treatment plants (WWTPs). Advanced oxidation processes are useful techniques, since reactive oxygen species (ROS) are used for the degradation of unwanted medicine residues. In this paper we have studied the advanced oxidation in a controlled laboratory setting using thermal plasma and UV/HO treatment. Five different matrices, Milli-Q water, tap water, synthetic urine, diluted urine and synthetic sewage water were spiked with 14 pharmaceuticals with a concentration of 5 μg/L. All compounds were reduced or completely decomposed by both 150 W thermal plasma and UV/HO treatment. Additionally, also hospital sewage water was tested. First the concentrations of 10 pharmaceutical residues were determined by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The pharmaceutical concentration ranged from 0.08 up to 2400 μg/L. With the application of 150 W thermal plasma or UV/HO, it was found that overall pharmaceutical degradation in hospital sewage water were nearly equivalent to the results obtained in the synthetic sewage water. However, based on the chemical abatement kinetics it was demonstrated that the degree of degradation decreases with increasing matrix complexity. Since reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) are continuously produced, thermal plasma treatment has the advantage over UV/HO treatment.
水环境受到人为污染物的污染越来越严重，如药物残留。由于污水中持久性化合物的生物降解能力差且持续排放，药物残留物在未被去除时可能最终会进入地表水。为了最大限度地减少这种污染，可以采用现场废水处理技术来补充传统的废水处理厂（WWTP）。高级氧化工艺是一种有用的技术，因为活性氧（ROS）可用于降解不需要的药物残留。在本文中，我们在受控的实验室环境中使用热等离子体和 UV/HO 处理研究了高级氧化。将 Milli-Q 水、自来水、合成尿液、稀释尿液和合成污水五种不同基质分别用 5μg/L 的浓度加入 14 种药物进行了加标。所有化合物均通过 150W 热等离子体和 UV/HO 处理得到了还原或完全分解。此外，还测试了医院污水。首先通过液相色谱质谱联用（LC-MS/MS）测定了 10 种药物残留的浓度。药物浓度范围为 0.08 至 2400μg/L。应用 150W 热等离子体或 UV/HO 后，发现医院污水中药物的整体降解程度与合成污水的结果几乎相当。然而，基于化学衰减动力学，证明降解程度随基质复杂性的增加而降低。由于活性氧和氮物种（RONS）不断产生，因此热等离子体处理比 UV/HO 处理具有优势。
