A Review on Removal of Pharmaceuticals Contaminants from Wastewater Using Ozonation and Advanced Oxidation Processes

Pharmaceutical and personal care products are known as emerging pollutants in water resources. The presence of such products, even in very small amounts (within the range of micro to nano gram), has adverse effects on the environment and health. So far, many methods have been addressed in literatures for the removal of drugs from wastewater, the most important of which are the advanced oxidation processes such as ozonation (removal of over 99% of steroidal and non-steroidal drugs, antibiotics, lipid regulator and anti-inflammatory drug) Fenton and Photo-Fenton (complete destruction of antibiotics such as amoxicillin), photo-Fenton (complete elimination of ofloxacin and trimethoprim), sonolysis (removal of 100% ciprofloxacin), and UV/H2O2 (complete degradation of amoxicillin) and also combinations of these processes to reduce the reaction time and, as a result, costs. Due to the high oxidizing power of the ozone molecule, the ozonation process is a promising technology for the removal of those pollutants which cannot be removed from the water by conventional methods. This paper presents the results of the studies which have been carried out on ozone-based processes for removing contaminants from municipal wastewater and water. In addition, the role of effective parameters on the removal rate of pollutants, such as contact time of ozone with the pollutant, pH, ozone dose, pollutant concentration, and type of drug, were investigated.