Next-generation hybrid technologies for the treatment of pharmaceutical industry effluents

Water and industries are intangible units of the globe that are always set to meet the population's demand. The global population depends on one-third of freshwater increasing the demand. The increase in population along with urbanization has polluted the fresh water resources. The pharmaceutical industry is marked as an emerging contaminant of water pollution. The most common type of pharmaceutical drugs that are detected in the environment includes antibiotics, analgesics, NSAIDs, and pain-relieving drugs. These drugs alter the food chain of the organisms causing chaos mainly in the marine ecosystem. Pharmaceutical drugs are found only in shallow amounts (ng/mg) they have a huge impact on the living system. The consumption of water contaminated with pharmaceutical ingredients can disrupt reproduction, hormonal imbalance, cancer, and respiratory problems. Various methods are used to remove these chemicals from the environment. In this review, we mainly focused on the emerging hybrid technologies and their significance in the effective treatment of pharmaceutical wastewater. This review paper primarily elaborates on the merits and demerits of existing conventional technologies helpful in developing integrated technologies for the modern era of pharmaceutical effluent treatment. This review paper further in detail discusses the various strategies of eco-friendly bioremediation techniques namely biostimulation, bioaugmentation, bacterial degradation, mycoremediation, phytoremediation, and others for the ultimate removal of pharmaceutical contaminants in wastewater. The review makes clear that targeted and hybrid solutions are what the world will require in the future to get rid of these pharmacological prints.

Treatment technologies for pharmaceutical effluents-A scientometric study

Treatment of highly polluted pharmaceutical effluents is a major challenge all over the world for technical and economic considerations. In this study, scientometric study is performed on the application of various methods for the treatment of pharmaceutical effluents to explore further developments. In this regard, a total of 1964 documents were retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) database using a set of relevant keywords to cover all published documents. The extracted documents were subjected to scientometric study including the contributed authors, publications, citations received, contributing countries and institutions as well as the subject categories. From the data retrieved, the status of scientific knowledge on the subject history and current trends were identified and scientific gaps were critically discussed. Publications in this area started to appear since the sixties and were considerably promoted around the beginning of 2000s. Scientific publications of years 1960-2018 followed sigmoidal trend. It was found that leading countries are China and the United States in terms of scientific output on treatment technologies for pharmaceutical effluents. Among the active journals published, "Water Research" has received the most citations. A detailed discussion on the science and developments in this field is provided including the potential applications of scientometry.

Utilizing recycled LiFePO4 from batteries in combination with B@C3N4 and CuFe2O4 as sustainable nano-junctions for high performance degradation of atenolol

In this report recycled LiFePO₄ (LFP) from exhaust batteries was utilized to form B@C₃N₄/LiFePO₄/CuFe₂O₄ (BLC) nano-junction as a visible active photocatalyst. The junction synthesized by two routes: Using as extracted LFP and forming LFP by extracted FePO₄ and Li₂CO₃ via in-situ deposition method. The two ternary junctions BLC and BLC (E) (utilizing as extracted LFP) were utilized for visible and solar powered degradation of beta-blocker drug Atenolol (ATL). Varying the loading of CuFe₂O₄ (CF) which possesses lowest band gap, BLC (10%), BLC-3 (30%), BLC-5 (50%) and BLC-E (30% CF and as extracted LFP) were produced with BLC-3 exhibiting remarkable activity. The optical band gaps of BLC-3 (2.40 eV) and BLC (E) (2.46 eV) and photocurrent responses reveal high visible absorption and highly diminished recombination. 99.5% and 85.3% of ATL (20 mg L^-1) could be degraded by BLC-3 and BLC (E) (0.3 g L^-1) respectively in 60 min of exposure to Xe lamp and retaining of high activity in natural sunlight. Band-junction analysis, effect of scavengers and effect on teraphthalic acid and nitroblue tetrazolium reveal O₂^- and OH radicals as active species and mineralization was confirmed by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometer (LC-MS). Cyto-toxicity studies on human peripheral blood cells and effect on growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa confirm the complete mineralization. The BLC photocatalyst is a promising multi-functional catalyst utilizing LFP (rarely used as photocatalyst) for treatment of pharmaceutical waste water and other environmental applications.

The genotoxicity and systemic toxicity of a pharmaceutical effluent in Wistar rats may involve oxidative stress induction

There is scarcity of information on the possible mechanisms of pharmaceutical effluent induced genotoxicity and systemic toxicity. This study investigated the genotoxicity and systemic toxicity of a pharmaceutical effluent in Wistar rats. Rats were orally treated with 5-50% concentrations of the effluent for 28 days. At post-exposure, blood, liver, kidney and bone marrow cells were examined for alterations in serum biochemical parameters and hematological indices, histopathological lesions and micronucleated polychromatic erythrocytes formation (MNPCE). The effluent caused concentration independent significant (p < 0.05) alterations in aspartate (AST) and alanine (ALT) aminotransferases, superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), malondialdehyde (MDA), total and direct bilirubin and creatinine. There was reduction in red blood count (RBC), hemoglobin concentration (HGB), platelets, percentage hematocrit (HCT), white blood count (WBC) and mean corpuscle hemoglobin (MCH) except mean corpuscle hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), which increased in the treated rats. Histopathological lesions observed in the liver and kidney of the effluent treated rats were thinning of the hepatic cord, kuffer cell hyperplasia, vacuolation of the hepatocytes and renal cells, multifocal inflammatory changes, necrosis and congestion of the renal blood vessels and central vein. MNPCE significantly increase in the bone marrow of the treated rats compared to the negative control. The concentration of some toxic metals and anions in the effluent were above standard permissible limits. These findings showed that the pharmaceutical effluent caused somatic DNA damage and systemic toxicity in rats may involve induction of oxidative stress, suggesting environmental contamination and health risks in wildlife and humans.