Effects of nontarget water constituents on the oxidative treatment of pharmaceutical micropollutants with KMnO4

CHED 1082

Matthew Sugihara, msugiha2@uiuc.edu, Lanhua Hu, lhu2@uiuc.edu, Osmarily Arce-Bulted, bulted_2005@yahoo.com, and Timothy J. Strathmann, strthmnn@uiuc.edu. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 205 North Mathews Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801
Recent studies report the widespread occurrence of pharmaceutically active compounds in effluent-impacted surface waters, raising concerns about the quality and safety of drinking water drawn from such sources. This has raised additional questions about the fate and removal of pharmaceuticals during drinking water treatment processes. Potassium permanganate (KMnO4) is a powerful oxidizing agent commonly used in water treatment (e.g., for manganese removal), and kinetic studies performed in our lab indicate KMnO4 has great potential for oxidizing many pharmaceutical micropollutants during water treatment. However, the treatment efficiency of pharmaceuticals with KMnO4 in different source water will be influenced by a variety of non-target water constituents that are present at concentrations that are orders-of-magnitude greater than the pharmaceutical compounds. This report presents the results of experiments performed to document the effects of common non-target ions (NH4+, SO42+, NO-3, Ca2+, Mn2+ and natural organic matter on KMnO4 reactions with carbamazepine (an antiepileptic drug) and chlortetracycline (a common antibiotic).