Untersuchungen zum Abbau von Pharmaka in kommunalen Kläranlagen mit HPLC-Electrospray-Massenspektrometrie

Examination of the Degradation of Drugs in Municipal Sewage Plants Using Liquid Chromatography-Electrospray Mass Spectrometry Numerous drugs can be identified in the secondary effluent of municipal sewage plants. In order to obtain information about the degree of elimination (adsorption, aerobic degradation) of these compounds, a batch reactor containing different drugs in environmentally relevant concentrations and a suspension of activated sludge was coupled to a HPLC-MS-MS system. During a testing period of three days concentration-time-curves were recorded. For most of the examined drugs (acetamidoantipyrine, crotamiton, diclofenac, primidone, propyphenazone) solely a strong decrease of the initial concentration within the first 15 minutes was observed, which was interpreted primarily as adsorption to the activated sludge. For acetaminophenol and pentoxifyllin an additional slower decrease in concentration within several hours was observed. This slower elimination was interpreted to be caused mainly by primary degradation. It could be shown that dihydrocodeine is oxidized to hydrocodone in the batch reactor. The conjugate acetaminophen glucuronide was cleaved.     

Determination of Antibiotic Residues in Manure,Soil, and Surface Waters

In the last years more and more often detections of antimicrobially active compounds (“antibiotics”) in surface waters have been reported. As a possible input pathway in most cases municipal sewage has been discussed. But as an input from the realm of agriculture is conceivable as well, in this study it should be investigated if an input can occur via the pathway application of liquid manure on fields with the subsequent mechanisms surface run‐off/interflow, leaching, and drift. For this purpose a series of surface waters, soils, and liquid manures from North Rhine‐Westphalia (Northwestern Germany) were sampled and analyzed for up to 29 compounds by HPLC‐MS/MS. In each of the surface waters antibiotics could be detected. The highest concentrations were found in samples from spring (300 ng/L of erythromycin). Some of the substances detected (e.g., tylosin), as well as characteristics in the landscape suggest an input from agriculture in some particular cases. In the investigation of different liquid manure samples by a fast immunoassay method sulfadimidine could be detected in the range of 1…2 mg/kg. Soil that had been fertilized with this liquid manure showed a content of sulfadimidine extractable by accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) of 15 μg/kg dry weight even 7 months after the application. This indicates the high stability of some antibiotics in manure and soil.     

Production of Drinking Water from Highly Contaminated Surface Waters: Removal of Organic,Inorganic, and Microbial Contaminants Applying Mobile Membrane Filtration Units

In military out of area missions of the Bundeswehr, it can be necessary to produce drinking water even from highly polluted surface waters containing a variety of organic, inorganic, and microbiological contaminants. Thus, mobile drinking water purification systems must be able to remove such contaminants as far as possible to meet the requirements of the German and European drinking water regulation/directive. Presently, two novel drinking water purification units applying membrane filtration undergo intensive long‐term trials carried out by the Bundeswehr. If these trials positively proof the functionality of these units and their ability to remove all possible contaminants they shall substitute so far available devices which use large amounts of chemicals and charcoal filtration for water purification.In the course of a research project, the functionality of the new devices and their efficacy to remove high amounts of algae, microbes, and organic and inorganic pollutants are additionally tested in “worst‐case” field studies. In September 2000, the first mobile drinking water purification unit was tested at the Teltowkanal in Berlin, Germany.This canal was chosen because it carries high burdens of municipal sewage effluents. The results from the fatigue test confirmed the ability of the water purification unit to reduce the concentrations of all contaminants meeting the maximum tolerance levels set by the German/European drinking water regulation.The pre‐filtration device was very effective in removing algae and solid particles to protect the membranes from clogging and to enable an almost maintenance‐free operation. Residues of pharmaceuticals and some other organic contaminants have almost totally been removed from the surface water where they were detected at individual concentrations up to the μg/L‐level.