Analía Menéndez Fagalde (Uruguay)

IHE Delft│Netherlands & UNIVALLE│Colombia

Ozonation and biological activated carbon (BAC) filtration for the treatment of antimicrobial wastewater (Uruguay)

Pharmaceutical companies generate wastewater that contains small concentrations of pharmaceutical residues. These “emerging” contaminants, if not properly treated, accumulate in the water basins; these compounds exhibit both ecological and human health effects. My research evaluated a wastewater treatment technology based on ozone oxidation and BAC filtration for the removal of these contaminants. I assessed the removal by determining the residual toxicity of the treated effluent. The system was fed wastewater from a local pharmaceutical industry. I achieved a complete removal of the effluent toxicity, which indicates promising results for the implementation of the proposed technology in the pharmaceutical sector in Uruguay.