Analysis and identification of degradation products of antibiotics after treatment in anaerobic reactors

Abstract

This research project aims analysis of degradation products (DP) formed after treatment in anaerobic reactors such as up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket(UASB) and horizontal-flow anaerobic immobilized biomass(HAIB). UASB reactors are frequently present in wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). HAIB is a modern anaerobic reactor used successfully in the treatment of formaldehyde in hospital wastewater. Nowadays, the presence of pharmaceutical drugs in the environment have been reported in different environmental matrices. Although, there is a lack of knowledge about the DP and its formation kinetic. Thus, this project focus on the identification and analysis of sulfas and fluorquinolones antibiotics DP formed during the wastewater treatment. These antibiotic classes are largely used in veterinary and for human purposes. Both classes appeared in a wide variety of environment matrices. To identify and analyze those DP, mass spectrometry techniques combined with liquid chromatography (LC-MS) are essential. Then, first step in this project will be study each antibiotic separately spiked in the wastewater followed by a treatment in the UASB reactor. The same process will be repeated for HAIB reactor. During those studies in both reactors, differents hydraulic detention time (HDT) will be applied to search the DP kinetic formation. Latter, the antibiotics will be combined in a mixture, spiked in a low concentration on the wastewater, in order to verify if the mixture could change the DP formation kinetic. In a second stage of the project, it will be the analysis of DP in situ, more specifically, analysis of DP present in WWTP. After the identification of DP, another possible stage of this project involves the ecotoxicity studies in aquatic animals. (AU)