Occurrence of antibiotic and treatment performance of decentralized and conventional sewage treatment plants

Antibiotics are widely used in human society and have been frequently detected in sewage treatment plants (STP). However, the fate of antibiotics in these STPs is limited, particularly in Southeast Asian countries. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the removal performances of six selec...

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Main Author:	Chen, Chee Xiang
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English
Published:	2021
Subjects:	TD Environmental technology Sanitary engineering
Online Access:	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/98346/1/ChenCheeXiangMSKA2021.pdf.pdf
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spelling	my-utm-ep.983462022-12-08T06:42:22Z Occurrence of antibiotic and treatment performance of decentralized and conventional sewage treatment plants 2021 Chen, Chee Xiang TD Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering Antibiotics are widely used in human society and have been frequently detected in sewage treatment plants (STP). However, the fate of antibiotics in these STPs is limited, particularly in Southeast Asian countries. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the removal performances of six selected STPs on selected wastewater quality parameters and four frequently prescribed antibiotics (ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, erythromycin and sulfamethoxazole). The mass flow, mass balance and removal pathways analysis of the antibiotics in these STPs were conducted in detail. The insight into the relationship between the removals of wastewater quality parameters and antibiotics was provided. Sewage samples were taken at each stage of six STPs, comprising of two decentralised treatment plants (Imhoff tanks (IT)), four conventional treatment plants (three extended aerations (EA) and one conventional activated sludge (CAS)) in Johor Bahru district. Liquid and sludge samples were pretreated using solid phase extraction and ultrasonicate extraction, respectively, followed by their quantification using UHPLC-MS according to USEPA Method 1694. Quality control experiment was done for the selected antibiotics with internal surrogate standards. The findings showed that most of the conventional wastewater constituents were better removed in conventional treatment systems compared to decentralised treatment system. The findings revealed that ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, erythromycin and sulfamethoxazole were detected in most wastewater samples, including influent, secondary effluent, final effluent and sewage sludge samples. The antibiotic concentrations in the wastewater and sludge ranged from 4.2 ng/l to 2,690 ng/l and 1.7 ng/g to 317.4 ng/g, respectively. Between -26.4% to 99.9% of the antibiotics were removed in all STPs, depending on the process employed. A detailed antibiotic mass flow was conducted in EA and IT plants. An estimate of 45.6 g of ampicillin, 76.7 g of ciprofloxacin, 60.0 g of erythromycin and 225.4 g of sulfamethoxazole were discharged into the receiving river annually. The mass balance analysis indicated that biodegradation is the major route for the removal of all antibiotics studied. Sorption is only responsible for minor removal of ciprofloxacin, erythromycin and sulfamethoxazole. Statistical analysis showed that AMP and ERY removals were highly related with organic and solid removals while the removal of CIP and SMX were highly related with nutrient removal only. However, these relationships were insignificant due to small number of samples. As a conclusion, this study provided a preliminary evaluation on the removal of antibiotics in each stage of conventional and decentralised STPs. This work showed that conventional treatment system has better removal performance on wastewater quality parameters compared to decentralised treatment system. However, the removal of antibiotics accomplished by both conventional treatment systems is not significantly superior than that of decentralised treatment systems. Both systems are insufficient to prevent the discharge of antibiotics into the environment. 2021 Thesis http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/98346/ http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/98346/1/ChenCheeXiangMSKA2021.pdf.pdf application/pdf en public http://dms.library.utm.my:8080/vital/access/manager/Repository/vital:144873 masters Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Faculty of Engineering - School of Civil Engineering
institution	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
collection	UTM Institutional Repository
language	English
topic	TD Environmental technology Sanitary engineering
spellingShingle	TD Environmental technology Sanitary engineering Chen, Chee Xiang Occurrence of antibiotic and treatment performance of decentralized and conventional sewage treatment plants
description	Antibiotics are widely used in human society and have been frequently detected in sewage treatment plants (STP). However, the fate of antibiotics in these STPs is limited, particularly in Southeast Asian countries. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the removal performances of six selected STPs on selected wastewater quality parameters and four frequently prescribed antibiotics (ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, erythromycin and sulfamethoxazole). The mass flow, mass balance and removal pathways analysis of the antibiotics in these STPs were conducted in detail. The insight into the relationship between the removals of wastewater quality parameters and antibiotics was provided. Sewage samples were taken at each stage of six STPs, comprising of two decentralised treatment plants (Imhoff tanks (IT)), four conventional treatment plants (three extended aerations (EA) and one conventional activated sludge (CAS)) in Johor Bahru district. Liquid and sludge samples were pretreated using solid phase extraction and ultrasonicate extraction, respectively, followed by their quantification using UHPLC-MS according to USEPA Method 1694. Quality control experiment was done for the selected antibiotics with internal surrogate standards. The findings showed that most of the conventional wastewater constituents were better removed in conventional treatment systems compared to decentralised treatment system. The findings revealed that ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, erythromycin and sulfamethoxazole were detected in most wastewater samples, including influent, secondary effluent, final effluent and sewage sludge samples. The antibiotic concentrations in the wastewater and sludge ranged from 4.2 ng/l to 2,690 ng/l and 1.7 ng/g to 317.4 ng/g, respectively. Between -26.4% to 99.9% of the antibiotics were removed in all STPs, depending on the process employed. A detailed antibiotic mass flow was conducted in EA and IT plants. An estimate of 45.6 g of ampicillin, 76.7 g of ciprofloxacin, 60.0 g of erythromycin and 225.4 g of sulfamethoxazole were discharged into the receiving river annually. The mass balance analysis indicated that biodegradation is the major route for the removal of all antibiotics studied. Sorption is only responsible for minor removal of ciprofloxacin, erythromycin and sulfamethoxazole. Statistical analysis showed that AMP and ERY removals were highly related with organic and solid removals while the removal of CIP and SMX were highly related with nutrient removal only. However, these relationships were insignificant due to small number of samples. As a conclusion, this study provided a preliminary evaluation on the removal of antibiotics in each stage of conventional and decentralised STPs. This work showed that conventional treatment system has better removal performance on wastewater quality parameters compared to decentralised treatment system. However, the removal of antibiotics accomplished by both conventional treatment systems is not significantly superior than that of decentralised treatment systems. Both systems are insufficient to prevent the discharge of antibiotics into the environment.
format	Thesis
qualification_level	Master's degree
author	Chen, Chee Xiang
author_facet	Chen, Chee Xiang
author_sort	Chen, Chee Xiang
title	Occurrence of antibiotic and treatment performance of decentralized and conventional sewage treatment plants
title_short	Occurrence of antibiotic and treatment performance of decentralized and conventional sewage treatment plants
title_full	Occurrence of antibiotic and treatment performance of decentralized and conventional sewage treatment plants
title_fullStr	Occurrence of antibiotic and treatment performance of decentralized and conventional sewage treatment plants
title_full_unstemmed	Occurrence of antibiotic and treatment performance of decentralized and conventional sewage treatment plants
title_sort	occurrence of antibiotic and treatment performance of decentralized and conventional sewage treatment plants
granting_institution	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
granting_department	Faculty of Engineering - School of Civil Engineering
publishDate	2021
url	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/98346/1/ChenCheeXiangMSKA2021.pdf.pdf
_version_	1776100581995184128

Occurrence of antibiotic and treatment performance of decentralized and conventional sewage treatment plants

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