Analysis of real pharmaceutical wastewater and proposed novel remediation methods

Pharmaceutical wastewater treatment is a lately a transpiring realm in the industrial wastewater treatment segment. Untreated pharmaceutical wastewater disposed into surface and ground water sources deteriorates the quality of water in these sources. Extremely tiny fragments of pharmaceuticals act as micropollutants and deteriorate the quality of water making it unsuitable for consumption or further indirect usage. The presence of pharmaceutical compounds induced in freshwater sources, as well as ground water sources raises quality concerns due to the presence of toxicants and hazardous compounds. Real wastewater sample from a pharmaceutical industry has been analysed not only for its routine physical, chemical and biological characteristics but also for the presence of hazardous compounds. Analysis has been done using Liquid Chromatography (LC) and Mass Spectrophotometry (MS). The sample was found to contain a hazardous compound Saccharin. Ammonical nitrogen and nitrates were found within permissible limits of release from industries and did not require further treatment. The manuscript proposes an integration of techniques for the eradication of these harmful substances from pharmaceutical wastewater viz. biological treatment along with an advanced oxidation process of photocatalysis and phytoremediation.