Removal and Transformation of Pharmaceuticals in Wastewater Treatment Plants and Constructed Wetlands

Abstract

For several decades, pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) have been noticed as emerging problematic compounds (Ternes et al., 1998; Snyder et al., 2003). In order to reduce residual concentrations of PPCPs, various advance treatments have been studied by many research groups (Lee and Gunten, 2010; Rosal et al., 2010 and many others). However, high levels of PPCPs are still detected in wastewater effluent, surface waters, and drinking waters (Kim et al., 2007; Lee et al., 2012; Yoon et al., 2010; Benotti et al., 2009). Since those trace organic compounds have been detected even in treated drinking waters by Benotti et al. (2009), control of micropollutants has been important especially in the wastewater treatment plant, the main source of the micropollutants in the aquatic environments.