Monitoring the effectiveness of selected sorption materials in removing diclofenac from water

Abstract

One of the contemporary problems is the widespread use of medicaments, which leads to an increased occurrence of these substances in the environment. The efficiency of conventional treatment processes for removing drugs from water is in most cases very little, if not zero. Treatment processes for removal of drugs include adsorption on activated carbon, membrane processes, and advanced oxidation processes. Within a specific university research project, a laboratory test was performed at the Institute of Municipal Water Management of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Brno University of Technology, to monitor the effectiveness of diclofenac removal by selected sorption materials. Diclofenac was chosen for this experiment as a representative of one of the most widespread groups of drugs - non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. The removal of diclofenac from water was performed using columns filled with sorption materials Filtrasorb F100, GEH and Bayoxide E33. The aim of the test was to compare the selected sorption materials in terms of their effectiveness in removing diclofenac from water. From analyses of water taken at predetermined time intervals after filtration through said materials, it was found that the most suitable material for removing diclofenac from water is Filtrasorb F100.