Pharmaceuticals removal and microbial community assessment in a continuous fungal treatment of non-sterile real hospital wastewater after a coagulation-flocculation pretreatment.
Hospital wastewaters are a main source of pharmaceutical active compounds, which are usually highly recalcitrant and can accumulate in surface and groundwater bodies. Fungal treatments can remove these contaminants prior to discharge, but real wastewater poses a problem to fungal survival due to bacterial competition. This study successfully treated real non-spiked, non-sterile wastewater in a continuous fungal fluidized bed bioreactor coupled to a coagulation-flocculation pretreatment for 56 days. A control bioreactor without the fungus was also operated and the results were compared. A denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and sequencing approach was used to study the microbial community arisen in both reactors and as a result some bacterial degraders are proposed. The fungal operation successfully removed analgesics and anti-inflammatories, and even the most recalcitrant pharmaceutical families such as antibiotics and psychiatric drugs.
Departament d'Enginyeria Química Biològica i Ambiental, Escola d'Enginyeria, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain.
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Mir-Tutusaus
Departament de Genètica i Microbiologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain.
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Parladé
Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), Scientific and Technological Park of the University of Girona, H2O Building, Emili Grahit 101, 17003, Girona, Spain.
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Llorca
Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), Scientific and Technological Park of the University of Girona, H2O Building, Emili Grahit 101, 17003, Girona, Spain.
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Villagrasa
Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), Scientific and Technological Park of the University of Girona, H2O Building, Emili Grahit 101, 17003, Girona, Spain; Department of Environmental Chemistry, Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA), Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), Jordi Girona 18-26, 08034, Barcelona, Spain.
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Barceló
Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), Scientific and Technological Park of the University of Girona, H2O Building, Emili Grahit 101, 17003, Girona, Spain.
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Rodriguez-Mozaz
Departament de Genètica i Microbiologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain.
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Martinez-Alonso
Departament de Genètica i Microbiologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain.
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Gaju
Institut de Química Avançada de Catalunya (IQAC) CSIC, Jordi Girona 18-26, 08034, Barcelona, Spain.
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Caminal
Departament d'Enginyeria Química Biològica i Ambiental, Escola d'Enginyeria, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address: Montserrat.Sarra@uab.cat.
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Sarrà
D019149:Bioreactors / Q000382:microbiology; D005427:Flocculation; D005658:Fungi; D006761:Hospitals; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid; D062065:Wastewater
D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D062065:Wastewater
Continuous treatment; Fungal bioreactor; Hospital wastewater; Non-sterile; Pharmaceutical active compounds; Pretreatment