How to treat pharmaceutical wastewater into purified water

Introduction
In the current time and future, where drugs (synthetic and natural) can cure almost “exist and
newfound diseases” thanks to the technology of medical and pharmaceutical studies, most drugs that
are present in society are chemical-based drugs, but there are also biological based products that are
currently developing in the industry. Drugs vary according to their functions (curative, preventive, and
promotive) and the study of drugs is developing each year for better human, animal, and agricultural
life. But, one of the current problems that the industry faces is wastewater, and it takes more than just
simple filtration for the pharmaceutical industry to discharge it to the society and environment.
According to Guo et al. (2017), pharmaceutical wastewater effluent can be characterized by such
physicochemical parameters, COD content (1000-10000 mg/L), BOD5 content (500-2500 mg/L), TN
content (500-1500 mg/L), TP content (50-250 mg/L), SS content (200-500 mg/L), chromaticity (500-
1000 times), temperature (25-80 Celcius), ph (1-8). Biopharmaceutical wastewater is characterized by
strong fluctuation in quantity, low C/N, high SS concentration, high sulfate concentration, complicated
composition, biological toxicity, and high chroma. Chemical pharmacy lacks nutrition, is hard to biodegrade
and toxic to microbiology, and has high salt content. And according to Regulations of Kementerian
Lingkungan Hidup no. 5 2014, the water that is allowed to be discharged from the Pharmaceutical
industry is assessed with these parameters, ph range of 6-9, BOD5 of 75 mg/L, COD of 150 mg/L, TSS of
75 mg/L, and there should be no nitrogen and phenol left (pro-mixing process of pharmaceutical by-
products). So the objective is to earn the optimum effluent from the pharmaceutical company that
produced chemical drugs from the preliminary to the secondary steps, while to produce purified water,
advanced wastewater treatment using depth, surface, and membrane filtration is implemented.

Types of separation

To discharge required wastewater from pharmaceutical chemical drug waste, some steps should be
required before. There is preliminary, primary, secondary, tertiary, and advanced wastewater
treatment. Most wastewater treatment systems consist of at least two main treatment processes:
primary and secondary treatment, with some additional preliminary methods. For the preliminary
treatment, there is a coarse screening, and grit chamber. The objective for preliminary treatment is to
remove coarse solids and other large materials. For the primary treatment, there is a clarifier with
coagulation that used anaerobic microbes to digest the sludge for 7 to 10 days. In the digestion
process, anaerobic and facultative bacteria metabolize the organic material in sludge, thereby reducing
the volume requiring ultimate disposal, making the sludge stable (non-putrescible) and improving its
dewatering characteristics, after that, it can be processed into a rapid mix tank and flocculation tank
combined. the objective of primary treatment is to remove settleable organics and inorganics and
floating material so that it can produce CO2 and CH4 from complex organic matter like long hydrocarbon
chains and also to establish stable ph. Approximately 25 to 50% of the incoming biochemical oxygen
demand (BOD5), 50 to 70% of the total suspended solids (SS), and 65% of the oil and grease are
removed during primary treatment. Then, in the secondary treatment, using aerobic microbes in the
clarifier remove the BOD5 and COD from the primary effluent, so that it can produce CO 2 and NH4+
(with O2, which can be reduced into nitrate, then to the anoxic tank with organic carbon to turned into
free N2 into the air, this is advanced treatment assisted to remove the nitrogen from the effluent),
 water from complex organic matter hydrocarbon chain, and possibly inorganics compounds like salt
that causes desalination in fresh water. So it is concluded that the waste water is already met the
required standard to be discharged as effluent.

But since our target is to produce purified water that comes from pharmaceutical wastewater,
advanced treatment is required, starting by using depth filtration, which involves the removal of
particulate material suspended in liquid by passing the liquid through a filter bed comprised of the
granular or compressible filter medium. A deep bed upflows continuous filter will be the choice, as it
passes through the granular filter (sand, carbon solids) with the assistance of shear forces so the
suspended solids are trapped in the sand and carbon. Next to the surface filtration, the objective of
this step is to remove residual suspended solids from secondary effluent and from stabilization pond
effluents. By using cloth media disc filtration with Synthetic pile fabric cloth, water enters through the
central channel and flows outward through the filter cloth. The filtrate is collected in the central tube
or filtrate header, then flows to its final discharge over an overflow weir in the effluent channel. The
advantage of this type of surface filtration is that it doesn’t need a high-pressure spray wash and only
needs backwash when it is needed to be clean. Then, there is membrane filtration, by using
microfiltration to separate the residual suspended solids, microorganisms, and particulates, reverse
osmosis, and ion exchange unit to remove the residual organic constituents by applying hydraulic
pressure to the water to move the water with the high concentration to the low concentration, while
the impurities are retained. In the ion exchange unit or electrolysis, the Ionic components of a solution
are separated through the use of a semipermeable ion-selective membrane.

Advantages and disadvantages of depth, surface, and membrane filtration

• By choosing deep bed upflows continuous filter as the depth surface, the advantage is, direct contact
of the impurities with the packing filter, hence, lower retention time to purify the water, the
disadvantage is to change the material of the packing filter periodically. Then, surface filtration, by
using cloth media disc filtration with Synthetic pile fabric cloth, the advantage is, the operation itself
doesn’t need high-pressure spray wash and only needed backwash when it must be cleaned. The
disadvantage is when the pore size is damaged causing it to widen up, so the cloth must be changed
due to the pressure coming from the water being given continuously. And there is the microfiltration
membrane, the advantage, is it can retain material, chemicals, and microorganisms that have a size
above 0.1 – 10 microns. The disadvantage is that the material of the membrane affects the retention
on the surface, say if the membrane material is hydrophilic, there is a big chance that it will form a
cake layer on the surface, thus, a membrane fouling and due to that the life span of the membrane
must be monitored periodically. While reverse osmosis has the advantage of removing what
microfiltration does, but more effective due to its smaller pore size, and with the help of hydraulic
pressure from high concentration to low concentration. The disadvantage is related to the cost of the
material and the high monitoring intensive time required compared to the other membrane treatment.
Electrodialysis has the advantage of removing the chemical components that bear positive and
negative charge ions, but the disadvantage is involved with the adjustment temperature, amount of
electrical current passed, type and amount of ions, permselectivity of the membrane, fouling and
scaling potential, wastewater flow rate, number and configuration of stages. Thus, it needed a highly
expert engineer to construct electrodialysis for the optimum requirement.

Purified water requirement

Based on Indonesia Pharmacopeia 6th edition, the PW requirement for pharmaceutical uses, have ph
range of 5-7, total organic carbon less than 0,5 mg/L, conductivity less than 1,3 μS/cm at 25°C, and
aerobic bacteria less than 10 CFU/ml. the wastewater comes from the secondary treatment and has
been processed with advanced wastewater treatment in order to meet the requirement.

Conclusion

Chemical-based pharmaceutical wastewater is hazardous to the living being and the environment, it is
mandatory for the pharmaceutical industry to pretreat the wastewater before flowing it to the
environment. Preliminary, primary, and secondary treatment is needed to produce an effluent that
meets the requirement according to Regulations of Kementerian Lingkungan Hidup no. 5 2014 and
purified water can be produced through the secondary effluent by treating it into several advance
wastewater treatment processes, depth filtration (deep bed upflows continuous filter), surface
filtration (cloth media disc filtration), membrane filtration (MF, RO, electrodialysis). All steps are
required to earn the purified water with such specifications based on the Indonesian Pharmacopeia 6 th
edition.

Secondary treatment
Primary (clarifier-
Chemical based drugs Preliminary (coarse (clarifier-aerobic
coagulation, rapid mix,
wastewater screening, grit chamber) microbes with anoxic
and flocculation tank)
tank assistance)

surface filtration (cloth

depth filtration (deep
Secondary treatment Secondary treatment media disc filtration with
bed upflows continuous
effluent effluent Synthetic pile fabric
filter)
cloth)

membrane filtration
Purified water
( MF, RO, electrodialysis)

Figure 1.1. Schematic diagram of obtaining purified water from pharmaceutical wastewater