296
C. Bhagat et al.
parental compounds is known as primary elimination process/treatment (Karthikeyan
and Meyer 2006). Primary treatments are generally stated when analytical approaches
like liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS) (Batt and Aga 2005) or
high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) are used in antibiotics removal
studies. Some chemicals or biological indicators like BOD, COD, DOC loss, ORP,
and the concentration of effluent give the idea about the effectiveness of the treatment. Quantification of single parameter like CO 2 generation in the removal process
is able to provide an efficiency of mineralization that leads to the complete degradation of a molecule through owned metabolites and convert that mineralization output
into CO 2 , water, and inorganic salts like sulfate, sulfide, nitrite, etc. The need for
removal of unwanted (organic/inorganic) substances from the environment system
is the consequence of the evolution of several removal techniques (Kümmerer K.
2009a, b).
The removal processes can be biotic and non-biotic, the biotic means biodegradation by biological means and non-biotic means removals by employing the physical
or chemical processes or a combination of both processes. The non-biotic processes
are sorption, hydrolysis, photolysis, oxidation, reduction, liquid extraction, and membrane techniques (Singh et al. 2019; Singh et al. 2020; Kumar et al. 2016). Most of
the removal techniques performance is dependent on condition such as the composition of matrix, temperature, pH of the system, and centration of contaminant.
The techniques which are used to remove the antibiotics contaminants from the
wastewater are conventional treatment processes (filtration, coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation and activated sludge process, trickling filters, etc.), ecological
treatments (constructed wetlands), adsorption techniques, advance oxidation techniques, and physical processes, etc. (Das et al. 2015; Kumar et al. 2010). This chapter
gives an overview of different removal techniques used and associated challenges
for the elimination of antibiotics.
13.2 What Is Antibiotic and Antibiotics Contaminant
A chemical compound that used to prevent/killed/destroyed the growth of microorganism is known as antibiotics (Homem and Santos 2011), for examples, penicillin,
amoxicillin, tetracycline, Ciprofloxacin, etc. Sometimes antibiotics are also expanded
into antibacterial, antifungal, antimicrobial, and antitumor compounds. Many of them
are from a microbial source, but some of them may be semi- or completely fabricated.
These substances are enduring and having high resistance to decomposition and persistence is high, and hence accumulation in the different environmental matrices
increases day by day (Larsson et al. 2007). The antibiotics residue found in various
environmental matrices, i.e., river water (Xu et al. 2009), wastewater (Mutiyar and
Mittal 2014), lake water, groundwater (Sacher et al. 2001), soil sediments, etc., and
their concentration above the detection limit is known as antibiotics contaminant
(Fig. 13.1).
C. Bhagat et al.
parental compounds is known as primary elimination process/treatment (Karthikeyan
and Meyer 2006). Primary treatments are generally stated when analytical approaches
like liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS) (Batt and Aga 2005) or
high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) are used in antibiotics removal
studies. Some chemicals or biological indicators like BOD, COD, DOC loss, ORP,
and the concentration of effluent give the idea about the effectiveness of the treatment. Quantification of single parameter like CO 2 generation in the removal process
is able to provide an efficiency of mineralization that leads to the complete degradation of a molecule through owned metabolites and convert that mineralization output
into CO 2 , water, and inorganic salts like sulfate, sulfide, nitrite, etc. The need for
removal of unwanted (organic/inorganic) substances from the environment system
is the consequence of the evolution of several removal techniques (Kümmerer K.
2009a, b).
The removal processes can be biotic and non-biotic, the biotic means biodegradation by biological means and non-biotic means removals by employing the physical
or chemical processes or a combination of both processes. The non-biotic processes
are sorption, hydrolysis, photolysis, oxidation, reduction, liquid extraction, and membrane techniques (Singh et al. 2019; Singh et al. 2020; Kumar et al. 2016). Most of
the removal techniques performance is dependent on condition such as the composition of matrix, temperature, pH of the system, and centration of contaminant.
The techniques which are used to remove the antibiotics contaminants from the
wastewater are conventional treatment processes (filtration, coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation and activated sludge process, trickling filters, etc.), ecological
treatments (constructed wetlands), adsorption techniques, advance oxidation techniques, and physical processes, etc. (Das et al. 2015; Kumar et al. 2010). This chapter
gives an overview of different removal techniques used and associated challenges
for the elimination of antibiotics.
13.2 What Is Antibiotic and Antibiotics Contaminant
A chemical compound that used to prevent/killed/destroyed the growth of microorganism is known as antibiotics (Homem and Santos 2011), for examples, penicillin,
amoxicillin, tetracycline, Ciprofloxacin, etc. Sometimes antibiotics are also expanded
into antibacterial, antifungal, antimicrobial, and antitumor compounds. Many of them
are from a microbial source, but some of them may be semi- or completely fabricated.
These substances are enduring and having high resistance to decomposition and persistence is high, and hence accumulation in the different environmental matrices
increases day by day (Larsson et al. 2007). The antibiotics residue found in various
environmental matrices, i.e., river water (Xu et al. 2009), wastewater (Mutiyar and
Mittal 2014), lake water, groundwater (Sacher et al. 2001), soil sediments, etc., and
their concentration above the detection limit is known as antibiotics contaminant
(Fig. 13.1).