OCCURRENCE OF PHARMACEUTICALS AT A WASTEWATER RECLAMATION PLANT AND REJECTION BY NANOFILTRATION AND REVERSE OSMOSIS MEMBRANES

Abstract

 This study investigated the occurrence of pharmaceuticals at a wastewater reclamation plant and evaluated the rejection of pharmaceuticals by nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) membrane treatments. Pharmaceuticals such as Sulpiride, Bezafibrate, Levofloxacin and Ketoprofen were detected at concentrations more than 500 ng/L from the feed water of the NF/RO membrane treatments. The rejections of pharmaceuticals by the RO membrane treatment were more than 99 % except for three pharmaceuticals. The three pharmaceuticals such as Ethenzamide, Acetaminophen and Caffeine, whose molecular weights are less than 200, showed the rejections ranging from 95.8 to 97.9% by the RO membrane treatment. Meanwhile, a wide range of the rejections of pharmaceuticals was shown for the NF membrane treatment. As for the pharmaceuticals whose molecular weights are from 200 to 300, the rejections of negative charged anionic pharmaceuticals were higher than those of positive charged or non-charged pharmaceuticals by the NF membrane treatment.