Application of Bioaugmentation to Improve Pharmaceutical Wastewater Treatment Efficiency
Key Engineering Materials 2019
Miks Neibergs, Elīna Strade, Vizma Nikolajeva, Igors Sušinskis, Dzintars Rozitis, Daina Kalniņa

Ecological harm and human health risks caused by environmental pollution with active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) nowadays is recognised as an issue of growing concern. Widespread presence of human and veterinary API in aquatic environment clearly indicates persistence and low removal efficiency of these compounds at conventional pharmaceutical and municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). Bioaugmentation of activated sludge systems with specialized microorganisms could be a powerful and environmentally friendly tool to enhance the removal efficiency of recalcitrant API. Selection of inoculum strains that have appropriate enzymatic pathways to metabolise complex molecules of API, belonging to different therapeutic classes, is of great importance. This study evaluated the potential of pure cultures of 10 bacteria, 10 yeasts and 3 filamentous fungi. These were previously isolated from activated sludge of pharmaceutical WWTP to degrade less investigated API – oxytocin, zopiclone and meldonium dihydrate as sole carbon source and in cometabolic manner with presence of skim milk powder as additional nutrient source. Bacteria Sphingobacterium thalpophilum and filamentous fungi Fusarium solani and Fusarium udum showed very high treatment efficiency of all tested API in laboratory-scale bioaugmentation tests and were recognized as culture with high metabolic potential to be used in bioaugmentation for removal of pharmaceutical micropollutants.


Keywords
bioaugmentation, pharmaceutical wastewater, removal of active pharmaceutical ingredients, biodegradation, cometabolism
DOI
10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.800.122
Hyperlink
https://www.scientific.net/KEM.800.122

Neibergs, M., Strade, E., Nikolajeva, V., Sušinskis, I., Rozitis, D., Kalniņa, D. Application of Bioaugmentation to Improve Pharmaceutical Wastewater Treatment Efficiency. In: Key Engineering Materials, Latvia, Rīga, 26-26 October, 2018. Šveice: Trans Tech Publications, 2019, pp.122-131. ISSN 1662-9795. Available from: doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.800.122

Publication language
English (en)
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