Journal of Environmental Biology

Studies on influence and fate of carbamazepine in anaerobic

digestion of sludge

Yong-Seok Cha, Soon-Uk Yoon and Chang-Gyun Kim*

Department of Environment Engineering, INHA University, Incheon, Republic of Korea

*Corresponding Author E-mail: cgk@inha.ac.kr

Publication Data

Paper received:

12 January 2015

Revised received:

06 May 2015

Accepted:

20 May 2015

Abstract

Increased consumption of pharmaceutical compounds compounded by their persistence in biological treatment processes and potential toxicity is becoming a serious concern. The aim of the present study was to investigate the fate of an antiepileptic drug, carbamazepine (CBZ), in anaerobic digestion process and its impact on methanogenic metabolism. Biochemical methane potential of CBZ with or without glucose was studied for 40 days in designed batch experiments. About 67.98% and 66.37% of spiked CBZ (about 100 ?g l^-1) were removed during this period from glucose amended or unamended sets, respectively. Loss of CBZ through adsorption onto suspended particles, as in sterilized seed sludge control (16.98%), was significantly lower in comparison to its biotic counterparts (P=0.002 and P=0.003). Analysis of methane or biogas production revealed no inhibitory effect of CBZ toward methanogenic process at its tested concentration. Differences in cumulative methane yields between glucose containing sets with or without CBZ were insignificant (P=0.885). This study suggests that any residual CBZ concentration lower than the present study, if detected in waste-water, might not significantly affect the methanogenic process.   

 Key words

Anaerobic digestion, BMP test, Carbamazepine, Pharmaceutical compound, Toxicity 

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