Removal of Toxic Pollutants through Microbiological and Tertiary Treatment

New Perspectives

Maulin P. Shah

• Publisher: Elsevier
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780128210147
• eBook ISBN: 9780128216828
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Chemical & Biochemical Engineering
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Removal of Toxic Pollutants through Microbiological and Tertiary Treatment: New Perspectives offers a current account of existing advanced oxidation strategies - including their limitations, challenges, and potential applications - in removing environmental pollutants through microbiological and tertiary treatment methods. The book introduces new trends and advances in environmental bioremediation technology, with thorough discussion of recent developments in the field. Updated information as well as future research directions in the field of bioremediation of industrial wastes is included. This book is an indispensable guide to students, researchers, scientists, and professionals working in fields such as microbiology, biotechnology, environmental sciences, eco-toxicology, and environmental remediation.The book also serves as a helpful guide for waste management professionals and those working on the biodegradation and bioremediation of industrial wastes and environmental pollutants for environmental sustainability.- Introduces various treatment schemes, including microbiological and tertiary technologies for bioremediation of environmental pollutants and industrial wastes- Includes pharmaceutical wastewater, oil refinery wastewater, distillery wastewater, tannery wastewater, textile wastewater, mine tailing wastes, plastic wastes, and more- Describes the role of relatively new treatment technologies and their approaches in bioremediation, including molecular and protein engineering technologies, microbial enzymes, bio surfactants, plant-microbe interactions, and genetically engineered organisms- Provides many advanced technologies in the field of bioremediation and phytoremediation, including electro-bioremediation technology, microbial fuel cell technology, nano-bioremediation technology, and phytotechnologies

1: Tertiary treatment technologies for removal of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes from wastewater

S.S. Shekhawat; N.M. Kulshreshtha; A.B. Gupta Department of Civil Engineering, Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur, India

Abstract

Indiscriminate use of antibiotics in humans and animals and release of inadequately treated hospital, animal farming, and aquaculture wastewater into the domestic sewage have led to an increased concentration of antibiotics in the wastewater. In the presence of positive selection pressure due to subinhibitory concentration favoring antibiotic-resistant strains, wastewater treatment plants serve as a hotspot for rapid dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes in susceptible strains. The technologies used water treatment plants, especially the tertiary treatment, which may play a pivotal role in checking the release of antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant genes into the environment. Conventional treatments involving chlorination as well as advanced oxidation processes like ozonation, Fenton process, photo-Fenton process, and their combination with UV/H₂O₂ are being studied for degradation of various antibiotics during water treatment. Similarly, a large number of culture-based and metagenomics analyses have been carried out on the removal of antibiotic resistance genes in various pilot scale and field scale wastewater treatment systems. This chapter discusses the role of different tertiary treatments in handling antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes in wastewater. The different types of tertiary treatment technologies are compared in terms of their efficiencies in dealing with these emerging pollutants so as to devise a treatment strategy that poses minimum threat to the ecosystem.

Keywords

Tertiary treatment technologies; Antibiotics; Antibiotic resistance genes; Wastewater; Ecosystem; Advanced oxidation process

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to acknowledge financial support from the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India (DST/TM/WTI/2K16/193 (G)), for this work.

1: Introduction

Antibiotics are compounds naturally synthesized by microorganisms as a mechanism to provide competitive advantage against other microorganisms (Kemper, Färber, Skutlarek, & Krieter, 2008). Till date, more than 250 different antibiotics have been discovered/synthesized for human and veterinary use belonging to different chemical classes (Kümmerer, 2009). Antibiotics have revolutionized human defense by increasing the life expectancy against a large number of infectious diseases, as evidenced by their global consumption of 0.1–0.2 million tons per annum (Kumar & Pal, 2018). Antibiotics are also a boon for agriculture and animal husbandry industries where they are now being commonly used for prophylaxis, meta prophylaxis, and growth enhancement in addition to treatment of infection (Qiao, Ying, Singer, & Zhu, 2018; Sarmah, Meyer, & Boxall, 2006). The total consumption of antibiotics is more than 100,000 tons per year (Danner, Robertson, Behrends, & Reiss, 2019). Moreover, the global antibiotic consumption intended for human use has increased remarkably (by 65%) from 2000 to 2015. Global antibiotic consumption is expressed as defined daily doses (DDD). The rate of antibiotic consumption has increased from 11.3 to 15.7 DDDs per 1000 inhabitants over 16 year period assessed (Danner et al., 2019).

The indiscriminate use (and misuse) of antibiotics has, however, led to increase in their concentrations in receiving water bodies and soil and might have a negative impact on the natural microbial community present there (Yidong et al., 2017). The main source of the antibiotics in the environment, apart from the antibiotic manufacturing industry waste (Phillips et al., 2010), is the direct excretion from humans and animals as a large proportion of antibiotics are not metabolized or partially metabolized by them (Bouki, Venieri, & Diamadopoulos, 2013). The antibiotics excreted in feces and urine end up in water treatment plants from where they are released into the water bodies or soil (Qiao et al., 2018) (Fig. 2.2).

Antibiotics are released into the environment through water discharge and other interactions like runoff, partitioning, percolation, and bioaccumulation (Van Doorslaer, Dewulf, Van Langenhove, & Demeestere, 2014). As a result, they are frequently detected in aqueous matrices, sediments, soils, and biotic component (Gothwal & Shashidhar, 2015). The detection of antibiotics in surface and ground water has led to a global concern and antibiotics are now being recognized as emerging pollutants.

Although their environmental concentrations are very low, usually at ng L^{− 1} to μg L^{− 1} in water phases and ng kg^{− 1} to mg kg^{− 1} in solid phases, they have still attracted increasing attention because of their potential ecological risks arising from the selective formation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) over the long term (Gothwal & Shashidhar, 2015; Van Doorslaer et al., 2014). The presence of subinhibitory concentration of antibiotics in natural and man-made environments (like sewage treatment plants) favors selection of antibiotic-resistant strains and transmission of the resistance genes to the susceptible environmental strains via various gene transfer mechanisms (Negreanu, Pasternak, Jurkevitch, & Cytryn, 2012; Pruden, Pei, Storteboom, & Carlson, 2006). Spread of antibiotic-resistant strains may lead to reduced therapeutic potential of antibiotics (Wright, 2010). Drug-resistant pathogens are expected to claim 10 million deaths each year by 2050 (Lorenzo et al., 2018). Emergence of multiple drug-resistant pathogens has forced the World Health Organization to classify antimicrobial resistance as a global public health crisis that is required to be managed with immediate priority (WHO, 2015).

Sewage treatment plants (STPs) serve as an optimum medium for the transmission of antibiotic resistance. As the wast...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Contributors
• Preface
• 1: Tertiary treatment technologies for removal of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes from wastewater
• 2: Synthetic polymeric membranes for the removal of toxic pollutants and other harmful contaminants from water
• 3: Application of biological and advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) for the remediation of wastewater laden with toxic pollutants
• 4: Removal of toxic pollutants through advanced oxidation processes
• 5: Removal of toxic pollutants using microbial fuel cells
• 6: Multifunctional approach to evaluate the efficiency of landfill leachate treatments
• 7: A comprehensive review of experimental studies on aerobic digestion of wastewater sludge
• 8: Nano-sorbents-assisted microbial bioremediation of hazardous petroleum hydrocarbons
• 9: Filter media modification with nano-zero-valent iron to enhance nitrate removal efficiency during water treatment
• 10: Bacterial hydrocarbon contaminants degradation: A cleaner perspective of bioremediation
• 11: Algal bioremediation of heavy metals
• 12: Microorganisms: A remedial source for dye pollution
• 13: Nanobiotechnological interventions for the removal of toxic pollutants
• 14: Microbial-assisted heavy metal remediation: Bottlenecks and prospects
• 15: Algae- and bacteria-driven technologies for pharmaceutical remediation in wastewater
• 16: Insights into the microbial processes prevalent in wastewater treatment systems using omics approaches
• 17: Emerging treatment strategies of pharmaceutical pollutants: Reactive physiochemical and innocuous biological approaches
• 18: Bioremediation of synthetic dyes: Dye decolorizing peroxidases (DyPs)
• 19: Phthalates—A class of ubiquitous pollutant: Microbial and enzymatic degradation perspectives
• 20: Nanotechnology: A promising tool for Bioremediation
• 21: Sustainable green synthesized nanoparticles: bioapplications and biosafety
• Index