Constructed Wetlands for Industrial Wastewater Treatment

17Removal Processes of Pharmaceuticals in Constructed Wetlands

A. Dordio^1,2, and A.J.P. Carvalho^1,3

¹Chemistry Department, School of Sciences and Technology, University of Évora, Évora, Portugal

²MARE – Marine and Environmental Research Centre, University of Évora, Évora, Portugal

³CQE – Évora Chemistry Centre, University of Évora, Évora, Portugal

17.1 Introduction

Pharmaceuticals are substances that are developed and used to perform a specific biochemical function in the diagnosis, prophylaxis, or therapy of a disease, disorder or abnormal physical state, or its symptoms in human beings or animals. Increasing amounts of pharmacologically active substances are consumed yearly in human and veterinary medicine and, as a side-effect of its widespread use, they are frequently present in wastewaters.

There are many aspects in which pharmaceuticals differentiate from conventional industrial chemical pollutants [1–4]:

• Pharmaceuticals usually are chemically complex molecules that vary widely in molecular weight (ranging typically from 200 to 1000 Dalton), structure, functionality, and shape; due to the variety of functions that pharmaceuticals must perform, this class of compounds spans very different physicochemical properties and biological functionalities.
• In general, pharmaceuticals are polar molecules with several ionizable groups, and the degree of ionization and its properties depend on the pH of the medium, with many molecules exhibiting an amphoteric behavior; most notably they can be ...