Cost Effective and Eco-Sustainable Treatment Options for Wastewater Effluents from Pharmaceutical Companies

There is the concern about the occurrence of active pharmaceutical ingredients, solvents, intermediate and raw materials that may be present in water and sanitation, including wastewater, growing interest in the pharmaceutical industry. Traditional methods of water treatment, such as activated sludge, are not sufficient for a complete removal of active pharmaceutical ingredients and other ingredients of sewage water. As a result, they often use complementary therapies such as membrane filtration, reverse osmosis and activated carbon along with traditional methods to treat industrial wastewater. Most of the writings were published so far in the municipal wastewater treatment. However, there is a growing body of research that looks at the proliferation of active pharmaceutical ingredients in the industrial wastewater and liquid waste treatment and removal rates. This article examines the treatments including both traditional methods and advanced oxidation processes. The paper concludes that the problem of waste water treatment can not be easily solved and there is the necessity of removal of critical chemicals from waste water of pharmaceutical industry.