Chapter 13
Reigning Technologies and Their
Challenges for Antibiotics Removal
Chandrashekhar Bhagat, Manish Kumar, and Pranab Kumar Mohapatra
13.1 Introduction
Pharmaceuticals like antibiotics, hormones, anesthetics, and anti-inflammatories are
the new class of emerging contaminants found in the environment (Sarmah et al.
2006; Kumar et al. 2019a, b; Gogoi et al. 2018). Considering their basic function,
these compounds are inherently bioactive and bio-available in the ambient environment and it leads to the ambiguous post-therapeutic consequence on the non-targeted
organisms (Southgate et al. 2000; Mohapatra et al. 2016; Leung et al. 2012). Among
all, pharmaceuticals antibiotics are competent antimicrobial agents and have been
extensively used in human medicine for infection and various diseases control (Mahmood et al. 2019; Diwan et al. 2009, 2010; Cao et al. 2016), agriculture, aquaculture,
animal husbandry, and live storage stoke (Kolpin et al. 2002, 2004; Kirst 2001; Kang
et al. 2018). As emerging contaminants in the environment, there has been increasing concern about pharmaceutical products like antibiotics (Gothwal and Shashidhar
2015; Goel et al. 2015; Berglund et al. 2014) because tons of antibiotics are used
in the year for various purposes. Hence, this increased antibiotics thread in the various environmental compartments leads a serious concerned about the elimination of
antibiotics from wastewater (Mutiyar and Mittal 2013, 2014).
Elimination means the removal of the parental compound and its by-product from
the concern environmental compartment, especially from aquatic matrices (Watkinson et al. 2007, 2009). The treatment which is employed for the removal of only
C. Bhagat · P. K. Mohapatra
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology,
Gandhinagar, Gujarat 382355, India
e-mail: chandrashekhar.b@iitgn.ac.in
M. Kumar (B)
Discipline of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology
Gandhinagar, Gandhinagar, Gujarat 382355, India
e-mail: manish.kumar@iitgn.ac.in
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
M. Kumar et al. (eds.), Contaminants in Drinking and Wastewater Sources,
Springer Transactions in Civil and Environmental Engineering,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4599-3_13
295
Reigning Technologies and Their
Challenges for Antibiotics Removal
Chandrashekhar Bhagat, Manish Kumar, and Pranab Kumar Mohapatra
13.1 Introduction
Pharmaceuticals like antibiotics, hormones, anesthetics, and anti-inflammatories are
the new class of emerging contaminants found in the environment (Sarmah et al.
2006; Kumar et al. 2019a, b; Gogoi et al. 2018). Considering their basic function,
these compounds are inherently bioactive and bio-available in the ambient environment and it leads to the ambiguous post-therapeutic consequence on the non-targeted
organisms (Southgate et al. 2000; Mohapatra et al. 2016; Leung et al. 2012). Among
all, pharmaceuticals antibiotics are competent antimicrobial agents and have been
extensively used in human medicine for infection and various diseases control (Mahmood et al. 2019; Diwan et al. 2009, 2010; Cao et al. 2016), agriculture, aquaculture,
animal husbandry, and live storage stoke (Kolpin et al. 2002, 2004; Kirst 2001; Kang
et al. 2018). As emerging contaminants in the environment, there has been increasing concern about pharmaceutical products like antibiotics (Gothwal and Shashidhar
2015; Goel et al. 2015; Berglund et al. 2014) because tons of antibiotics are used
in the year for various purposes. Hence, this increased antibiotics thread in the various environmental compartments leads a serious concerned about the elimination of
antibiotics from wastewater (Mutiyar and Mittal 2013, 2014).
Elimination means the removal of the parental compound and its by-product from
the concern environmental compartment, especially from aquatic matrices (Watkinson et al. 2007, 2009). The treatment which is employed for the removal of only
C. Bhagat · P. K. Mohapatra
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology,
Gandhinagar, Gujarat 382355, India
e-mail: chandrashekhar.b@iitgn.ac.in
M. Kumar (B)
Discipline of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology
Gandhinagar, Gandhinagar, Gujarat 382355, India
e-mail: manish.kumar@iitgn.ac.in
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
M. Kumar et al. (eds.), Contaminants in Drinking and Wastewater Sources,
Springer Transactions in Civil and Environmental Engineering,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4599-3_13
295