However, while more efficient treatment technology is still being developed [12],
there is also increasing interest on water reuse and water reclamation for crop
irrigation [13], as well as biosolids (either as sludge [14] or manure [15]) application
on land for resources recovery. Therefore, there is a raising concern with the overall
fate of pharmaceuticals, and the topic of manure application raises added concern
due to the contamination with antibiotics and the issues with antibiotic
resistance [16].
Water treatment technology is in itself a very broad topic. The present chapter
will focus on constructed wetlands (CWs). Constructed wetlands are a widely
accepted and robust wastewater treatment technology, which enables many different
kinds of wastewater to be treated in a cost-efficient way [17]. CWs are one of the
most often applied nature-based solutions for water management [18], namely, for
the treatment of domestic and agricultural wastewaters, coal mine drainage and
stormwater run-off; mainly because of a set of beneficial features, including environmental quality preservation, landscape conservation and economic convenience
[19]. In addition, CWs have been successfully implemented for diverse agriculture
and industrial sectors [20], such as seafood-processing industry, olive mill industry,
dairy, alcohol fermentation industry and abattoir industry. High-pollutant loading
rates and toxic substances can be effectively treated with CWs; thus, they have great
potential for implementation in low-income countries and rural areas [21]. More
recently, CWs have been also proposed for the treatment of greywater in urban areas,
including by coupling CW with disinfection units such as ultraviolet radiation
disinfection and chlorination to reliably meet the standards for reuse [22]. However,
further concerns arise when it comes to the potential contamination by pharmaceuticals and other emerging contaminants.
In recent years, CWs application as an advanced treatment unit to address
contamination by emerging organic micropollutants, including pharmaceuticals
has been attracting increasing attention [23]. An unsupervised search on Scopus in
March 2020 for “constructed wetland” AND pharmaceuticals retrieved 210 publications, 26 of each review papers. The earliest publication dates from 2004 – indicating
quite an active topic of the research in CWs for the past 16 years. From the review
papers covering the topic, some contain just brief mentions to CWs within broader
topics [24, 25], while others provide extensive overview on the potential phytotoxic
effect of pharmaceutical to plants [26] or are totally dedicated to mitigation of
pharmaceutical contamination by CWs [27, 28]. There is, therefore, an interesting
amount of information available providing a good overview of the overall performance of these systems, the removal processes and their limitations. The current
chapter aims to:
1. Provide an insight to the application of constructed wetland technology under a
variety of configurations and design options in regard to pharmaceutical removal
2. Discuss removal processes, namely, sorption, photodegradation, plant and
biological-driven biodegradation, the challenges in its application and reproducibility, the knowledge gaps and the future trends
Constructed Wetlands and Phytoremediation as a Tool for Pharmaceutical Removal
379
there is also increasing interest on water reuse and water reclamation for crop
irrigation [13], as well as biosolids (either as sludge [14] or manure [15]) application
on land for resources recovery. Therefore, there is a raising concern with the overall
fate of pharmaceuticals, and the topic of manure application raises added concern
due to the contamination with antibiotics and the issues with antibiotic
resistance [16].
Water treatment technology is in itself a very broad topic. The present chapter
will focus on constructed wetlands (CWs). Constructed wetlands are a widely
accepted and robust wastewater treatment technology, which enables many different
kinds of wastewater to be treated in a cost-efficient way [17]. CWs are one of the
most often applied nature-based solutions for water management [18], namely, for
the treatment of domestic and agricultural wastewaters, coal mine drainage and
stormwater run-off; mainly because of a set of beneficial features, including environmental quality preservation, landscape conservation and economic convenience
[19]. In addition, CWs have been successfully implemented for diverse agriculture
and industrial sectors [20], such as seafood-processing industry, olive mill industry,
dairy, alcohol fermentation industry and abattoir industry. High-pollutant loading
rates and toxic substances can be effectively treated with CWs; thus, they have great
potential for implementation in low-income countries and rural areas [21]. More
recently, CWs have been also proposed for the treatment of greywater in urban areas,
including by coupling CW with disinfection units such as ultraviolet radiation
disinfection and chlorination to reliably meet the standards for reuse [22]. However,
further concerns arise when it comes to the potential contamination by pharmaceuticals and other emerging contaminants.
In recent years, CWs application as an advanced treatment unit to address
contamination by emerging organic micropollutants, including pharmaceuticals
has been attracting increasing attention [23]. An unsupervised search on Scopus in
March 2020 for “constructed wetland” AND pharmaceuticals retrieved 210 publications, 26 of each review papers. The earliest publication dates from 2004 – indicating
quite an active topic of the research in CWs for the past 16 years. From the review
papers covering the topic, some contain just brief mentions to CWs within broader
topics [24, 25], while others provide extensive overview on the potential phytotoxic
effect of pharmaceutical to plants [26] or are totally dedicated to mitigation of
pharmaceutical contamination by CWs [27, 28]. There is, therefore, an interesting
amount of information available providing a good overview of the overall performance of these systems, the removal processes and their limitations. The current
chapter aims to:
1. Provide an insight to the application of constructed wetland technology under a
variety of configurations and design options in regard to pharmaceutical removal
2. Discuss removal processes, namely, sorption, photodegradation, plant and
biological-driven biodegradation, the challenges in its application and reproducibility, the knowledge gaps and the future trends
Constructed Wetlands and Phytoremediation as a Tool for Pharmaceutical Removal
379