Abstract
Carbamazepine (CBZ), a pharmaceutical compound, has been proposed as an anthropogenic marker to assess water quality due to its persistence in conventional treatment plants and widespread presence in water bodies. This paper presents a comprehensive literature review on sources and occurrences of CBZ in water bodies, as well as toxicological effects and regulations of the drug. Given the documented side effects of CBZ on the human body when taken medicinally, its careful monitoring in water is recommended. CBZ residues in drinking water may provide a pathway to embryos and infants via intrauterine exposure or breast-feeding, which may cause congenital malformations and/or neurodevelopmental problems over long term exposure. An in-depth technical assessment of the conventional and advanced treatment technologies revealed the inadequacy of the standalone technologies. Compared to conventional activated sludge and membrane bioreactor processes, effective removal of CBZ can be achieved by nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membranes. However, recent studies have revealed that harsh chemical cleaning, as required to mitigate membrane fouling, can often reduce the long-term removal efficiency. Furthermore, despite the efficient performance of activated carbon adsorption and advanced oxidation processes, a few challenges such as cost of chemicals and regeneration of activated carbon need to be carefully considered. The limitations of the individual technologies point to the advantages of combined and hybrid systems, namely, membrane bioreactor coupled with nanofiltration, adsorption or advanced oxidation process.
Highlights
The occurrence of pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) in environmental systems such as freshwater bodies has become a topic of growing concern over the last decade due to theirWater 2018, 10, 107; doi:10.3390/w10020107 www.mdpi.com/journal/waterWater 2018, 10, 107 potential detrimental impacts on aquatic life and human health [1,2]
Its occurrence in freshwater may not pose an immediate threat to aquatic ecosystems or human health, effective removal of CBZ is still required for safe water reuse applications and drinking water treatment
Advanced wastewater treatment processes seem to be effective for efficient CBZ removal
Summary
The occurrence of pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) in environmental systems such as freshwater bodies has become a topic of growing concern over the last decade due to their. CBZtheisestablishment one of ofthe most frequently pharmaceutical compounds in water quality standards for their detected regular monitoring [5,7] In this context, carbamazepine has been proposedpresent as an anthropogenic of sewage in the high ng/L to environmental systems [4,11]. A number of interesting review papers have been published on the occurrences of micropollutants in environmental systems such as wastewater [18], surface water [4] and groundwater [5], as well as the performance of conventional treatment technologies for the removal of micropollutants [19,20,21]. The factors governing the resistance of CBZ to the available wastewater treatment processes are elucidated, and the efficacy of advanced/emerging treatment processes is comprehensively discussed
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