TY - JOUR
T1 - Fate of antibiotics during municipal water recycling treatment processes
AU - Le-Minh, N.
AU - Khan, S. J.
AU - Drewes, J. E.
AU - Stuetz, R. M.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported under the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Projects funding scheme (project number DP0558029 ).
PY - 2010/8
Y1 - 2010/8
N2 - Municipal water recycling processes are potential human and environmental exposure routes for low concentrations of persistent antibiotics. While the implications of such exposure scenarios are unknown, concerns have been raised regarding the possibility that continuous discharge of antibiotics to the environment may facilitate the development or proliferation of resistant strains of bacteria. As potable and non-potable water recycling schemes are continuously developed, it is imperative to improve our understanding of the fate of antibiotics during conventional and advanced wastewater treatment processes leading to high-quality water reclamation. This review collates existing knowledge with the aim of providing new insight to the influence of a wide range of treatment processes to the ultimate fate of antibiotics during conventional and advanced wastewater treatment. Although conventional biological wastewater treatment processes are effective for the removal of some antibiotics, many have been reported to occur at 10-1000 ng L-1 concentrations in secondary treated effluents. These include β-lactams, sulfonamides, trimethoprim, macrolides, fluoroquinolones, and tetracyclines. Tertiary and advanced treatment processes may be required to fully manage environmental and human exposure to these contaminants in water recycling schemes. The effectiveness of a range of processes including tertiary media filtration, ozonation, chlorination, UV irradiation, activated carbon adsorption, and NF/RO filtration has been reviewed and, where possible, semi-quantitative estimations of antibiotics removals have been provided.
AB - Municipal water recycling processes are potential human and environmental exposure routes for low concentrations of persistent antibiotics. While the implications of such exposure scenarios are unknown, concerns have been raised regarding the possibility that continuous discharge of antibiotics to the environment may facilitate the development or proliferation of resistant strains of bacteria. As potable and non-potable water recycling schemes are continuously developed, it is imperative to improve our understanding of the fate of antibiotics during conventional and advanced wastewater treatment processes leading to high-quality water reclamation. This review collates existing knowledge with the aim of providing new insight to the influence of a wide range of treatment processes to the ultimate fate of antibiotics during conventional and advanced wastewater treatment. Although conventional biological wastewater treatment processes are effective for the removal of some antibiotics, many have been reported to occur at 10-1000 ng L-1 concentrations in secondary treated effluents. These include β-lactams, sulfonamides, trimethoprim, macrolides, fluoroquinolones, and tetracyclines. Tertiary and advanced treatment processes may be required to fully manage environmental and human exposure to these contaminants in water recycling schemes. The effectiveness of a range of processes including tertiary media filtration, ozonation, chlorination, UV irradiation, activated carbon adsorption, and NF/RO filtration has been reviewed and, where possible, semi-quantitative estimations of antibiotics removals have been provided.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77955267759&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.watres.2010.06.020
DO - 10.1016/j.watres.2010.06.020
M3 - Review article
C2 - 20619433
AN - SCOPUS:77955267759
SN - 0043-1354
VL - 44
SP - 4295
EP - 4323
JO - Water Research
JF - Water Research
IS - 15
ER -
