The generation, characteristics, and hazards of pharmaceutical wastewater The generation of pharmaceutical wastewater

Pharmaceutical wastewater mainly comes from the following sources:
Wastewater discharged during the production process: This is the main wastewater treated, containing drug residues, high pollutant concentrations, complex components, including intermediate metabolites, surfactants, high concentrations of acid and alkali, and organic solvents.
Auxiliary process drainage: mainly from the cooling circulating water of auxiliary facilities, with a large amount of water but low pollution.
Cleaning wastewater: wastewater generated from regular cleaning of equipment, floors, etc.
Domestic sewage: Wastewater generated by employees' daily activities, with low concentration and easy to treat.
Characteristics of pharmaceutical wastewater:
The water quality is complex in composition, containing various organic compounds, inorganic salts, and surfactants, resulting in large pH fluctuations, high chromaticity, and strong odor.
High concentration of organic pollution: high COD value, poor biodegradability, difficult to carry out conventional biochemical treatment.
There are many substances that are difficult to biodegrade: residual drugs such as antibiotics and halogen compounds are mostly substances that are difficult to biodegrade.
High impact load: Wastewater is usually discharged intermittently, and temperature, pollutant concentration, and acidity/alkalinity vary greatly over time.
High chromaticity, strong odor: and difficult to completely remove after general sewage treatment process.
High suspended solids concentration: Wastewater often carries a large amount of microbial mycelium or herbal residue.
High salt content: Cl ⁻, SO ₄² ⁻ content is high, which has toxic effects on microbial cells and accelerates sludge flotation and equipment corrosion.
The hazards of pharmaceutical wastewater:
Consumption of dissolved oxygen in water: When organic matter undergoes biological oxidation and decomposition in water, it consumes dissolved oxygen in the water, leading to hypoxia or deoxygenation of the water and causing the death of aquatic organisms.
Disrupting the ecological balance of water bodies: Certain drugs and their synthesized intermediates have bactericidal or bacteriostatic effects, affecting the metabolism of microorganisms in water bodies.
Environmental pollution caused by drug metabolites: Chemical reactions occur between pollutants in pharmaceutical wastewater or with substances in water bodies, resulting in new pollution, such as nitrosamines being strong carcinogens.
The principle and advantages of treating pharmaceutical wastewater with polymeric ferric sulfate
The principle of treating pharmaceutical wastewater with polymeric ferric sulfate:
The main functions of Polyferric Sulfate (PFS) in pharmaceutical wastewater treatment are coagulation precipitation and adsorption. After the dissolution of polymeric ferric sulfate, colloids with adsorption and cross-linking properties such as Fe (OH) ∝ and Fe (OH) ₂ ⁺ are generated. These colloids can adsorb COD substances, metal ions, and phosphate ions in wastewater, and form large flocs that precipitate at the bottom of the water through mechanisms such as electrical neutralization and coagulation, thereby removing harmful substances from the water.
Advantages of using polymeric ferric sulfate to treat pharmaceutical wastewater:
Fast settling speed: Polymeric ferric sulfate can quickly form large and dense flocs, which is beneficial for the removal of pollutants.
Efficient turbidity removal ability: It can significantly reduce the turbidity and suspended solids concentration in wastewater.
Wide applicability: Not only applicable to pharmaceutical wastewater, but also widely used in the treatment of other types of wastewater such as printing and dyeing wastewater, electroplating wastewater, etc.
Significant treatment effect: able to adapt to water quality of various pH levels, effectively reducing COD, BOD, and phosphorus content in wastewater.
Economy: Compared to other agents, the cost of polymeric ferric sulfate is lower and requires less dosage, which can significantly reduce processing costs.
Safety: It has low corrosiveness to equipment, is non-toxic and harmless, and is safe and reliable to use.
In summary, polymeric ferric sulfate has significant application value and broad prospects in pharmaceutical wastewater treatment due to its advantages of high efficiency, economy, safety, and wide applicability.