Occurrence and fate of antibiotics in advanced wastewater treatment facilities and receiving rivers in Beijing, China

doi:10.1007/s11783-014-0735-0

Front. Environ. Sci. Eng.

2014, Vol. 8

Issue (6) : 888-894 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-014-0735-0

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Occurrence and fate of antibiotics in advanced wastewater treatment facilities and receiving rivers in Beijing, China

Xinwei LI^1,²,Hanchang SHI^1,^*(

),Kuixiao LI²,Liang ZHANG²,Yiping GAN²

1. School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
2. Beijing Drainage Group Co. Ltd., Beijing 100044, China

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Abstract

The occurrence and removal of 13 antibiotics were investigated in five wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) with advanced wastewater treatment processes in Beijing, China. Most of the target antibiotics were detected in the secondary and tertiary effluents, with the concentrations of 4.8–1106.0 and 0.3–505.0 ng·L^-1. Fluoroquinolone antibiotics showed relatively high concentrations in all samples (782–1814 ng·L^-1). Different tertiary treatment processes showed discrepant antibiotics removal performances. Ozonation process was found more effective in removing target antibiotics compared to the coagulation-flocculation-sedimentation process and sand filtration process. Investigation of the target antibiotics in three typical urban rivers in Beijing was carried out to understand antibiotics occurrence in surface water environment. Eight antibiotics were detected in the studied rivers, with highest concentration of antibiotics in the river which was mainly replenished by reclaimed water. This study showed the necessity of employing more effective advanced treatment facilities to further reduce the discharge amount of antibiotics.

Keywords antibiotics advanced treatment urban river reclaimed water

Corresponding Author(s): Hanchang SHI

Online First Date: 12 June 2014 Issue Date: 17 November 2014

Cite this article:

Xinwei LI,Hanchang SHI,Kuixiao LI, et al. Occurrence and fate of antibiotics in advanced wastewater treatment facilities and receiving rivers in Beijing, China[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2014, 8(6): 888-894.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/10.1007/s11783-014-0735-0
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/Y2014/V8/I6/888

Tab.1 Characteristics of selected target antibiotics

Tab.2 Information of the investigated advanced treatment processes of WWTPs

Fig.1 Locations and sampling sites of the five WWTPs and three rivers in Beijing. A, B, C, D and E represent the locations of five WWTPs. ? represent the sampling sites in three urban rivers

Fig.2 Concentrations of target antibiotics in the secondary effluents of 5 municipal WWTPs in Beijing

Fig.3 Total concentrations of major antibiotic groups in the reclaimed wastewater (a) and removal efficiencies during advanced treatment (b)

Fig.4 Concentrations of target?antibiotics in three urban rivers

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