TY - JOUR
T1 - Pharmaceuticals effect and removal, at environmentally relevant concentrations, from sewage sludge during anaerobic digestion
AU - Alenzi, Asma
AU - Hunter, Colin
AU - Spencer, Janice
AU - Roberts, Joanne
AU - Craft, John
AU - Pahl, Ole
AU - Escudero Olabuenaga, Ania
N1 - Acceptance from web page - ELL 17/9/20
AAM: 12m embargo
PY - 2021/1
Y1 - 2021/1
N2 - This paper investigates the performance of AD in the presence of high-risk pharmaceuticals found in sewage sludge and its removal capacity. The digestion process of synthetic sewage sludge was observed in two 7L glass reactors (D1 and D2) at 38ºC (OLR 1.3 gVS L-1 d-1 and HRT 43 d). Environmentally relevant pharmaceuticals (clarithromycin, clotrimazole, erythromycin, fluoxetine, ibuprofen, sertraline, simvastatin and tamoxifen) were added in D2 at predicted environmental (sludge) conditions. The results demonstrated that long-term presence of pharmaceuticals can affect AD and induce instability resulting in an accumulation of VFAs. This study showed a concurrent effect on AD microbial composition, increasing the percentage of Firmicutes (>70%) and decreasing the percentages of Bacteroidetes and Euryarchaeota (<5%), which seems to be the cause of VFA accumulation and resultant the decrease in the biogas production.However, it seems that anaerobic microorganisms offer enhanced the removal of the antibiotics clarithromycin and erythromycin over aerobic techniques.
AB - This paper investigates the performance of AD in the presence of high-risk pharmaceuticals found in sewage sludge and its removal capacity. The digestion process of synthetic sewage sludge was observed in two 7L glass reactors (D1 and D2) at 38ºC (OLR 1.3 gVS L-1 d-1 and HRT 43 d). Environmentally relevant pharmaceuticals (clarithromycin, clotrimazole, erythromycin, fluoxetine, ibuprofen, sertraline, simvastatin and tamoxifen) were added in D2 at predicted environmental (sludge) conditions. The results demonstrated that long-term presence of pharmaceuticals can affect AD and induce instability resulting in an accumulation of VFAs. This study showed a concurrent effect on AD microbial composition, increasing the percentage of Firmicutes (>70%) and decreasing the percentages of Bacteroidetes and Euryarchaeota (<5%), which seems to be the cause of VFA accumulation and resultant the decrease in the biogas production.However, it seems that anaerobic microorganisms offer enhanced the removal of the antibiotics clarithromycin and erythromycin over aerobic techniques.
KW - Anaerobic digestion
KW - Biological treatment
KW - Microbial composition
KW - Pharmaceuticals
KW - Synthetic sewage sludge
U2 - 10.1016/j.biortech.2020.124102
DO - 10.1016/j.biortech.2020.124102
M3 - Article
VL - 319
JO - Bioresource Technology
JF - Bioresource Technology
SN - 0960-8524
M1 - 124102
ER -