PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
The benefits to the quality of life of the responsible use of pharmaceuticals is widely recognised. The pharmaceutical sector is one of the top performings in the EU, playing an essential role in fostering EU growth and competitiveness, with more than 765 000 employee, contributing over €105 billion to the trade balance.
However, studies over the past two decades have shown that Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) are continuously accumulating in soil, animals (especially fish), surface and groundwater. APIs are non-biodegradable, toxic and persistent, having endocrine-disrupting properties. Antibiotics moreover are considered to be a major contributor towards antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
Contamination by APIs occurs through three different pathways:
- Wastewater from the pharmaceutical industry (manufacture);
- Excretion of pharmaceuticals from animals and humans (use); and
- Improper disposal of expired medicines (disposal).
Manufacturing accounts for a small but still significant percentage of total pharmaceutical emissions to the environment. In cases where discharge is not sufficiently controlled, it can lead to high concentrations of active residues in waters, soils, and sediments around pharmaceutical factories.
One of the primary industry sources of wastewater containing APIs derives from the washing of the equipment after each manufacturing step for every batch produced. In these aqueous washings, there are traces of pharmaceutical compounds, several of which are antibiotics (penicillins, cefalosporins and non-penicillins/noncefalosporins), which may contribute to the development of AMR.
In 2016, the United Nations declared the need for urgent action to combat the global threat of AMR.
The pharmaceutical industry has committed to measures aimed at reducing antibiotics released in the environment. Recently, more than 100 biotechnology, diagnostic, generics and research-based biopharmaceutical companies and trade associations formed the AMR Industry Alliance and have agreed on a framework for promoting responsible antibiotic manufacturing.
OBJECTIVES
The LIFE PHARMA-DETOX project aims to detoxify wastewater from the pharmaceutical industry by developing an innovative, economically viable and cost-efficient system for the transformation of pharmaceutical compounds present in wastewater into non-toxic substances (novel detoxification process). The system will treat the wastewater generated from production activities, ensuring that no APIs end up in the wastewater sewage system without being processed and detoxified by the system developed (PHARMA-DETOX).
Specifically, the project aims to:
- Avoid the release of APIs into the wastewater sewage system;
- Demonstrate an innovative, cost-effective, low-energy consumption industrial system for the treatment of wastewater effluent containing traces of APIs that will be detoxified before entering the wastewater sewage system;
- Convert and detoxify 5 220 g APIs per year from Medochemie’s manufacturing facilities;
- Recycle and re-use water that would otherwise have been discarded in the wastewater sewage system. The produced recycled water can be used in non-critical applications, such as in the heat exchanging equipment (chillers/boilers);
- Save 10 m3 of potable water daily through the use of reclaimed water;
- Minimise the environmental and carbon footprint of the system by using only renewable energy sources;
- Train pharmaceutical facility industrial operators on the use of the PHARMA-DETOX technology;
- Commercialisation of a new, innovative method for the treatment and detoxification of pharmaceutical compounds and its replication in other pharmaceutical companies across Europe; and
- Present the method and the progress of the project at international conferences.
The project contributes to the wide range of EU policy: the Water Framework Directive; the Priority Substances Directive; the European Union Strategic Approach to Pharmaceuticals in the Environment; A European One Health Action Plan against Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR); the Zero Pollution Action Plan; the New Circular Economy Action Plan; the Industrial Emissions Directive; the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive; the Energy Efficiency Directive; and the Renewable Energy Directive.
RESULTS
Expected results:
- Prevention of wastewater discharge of about 10 m3 per day, contaminated with traces of antibiotics that can contribute to the development of antimicrobial resistance;
- Operation of the PHARMA-DETOX pilot plant, with the capacity to treat around 10 m3 per day, preventing the release of 5 220 g of antibiotics to the urban WWTP;
- Further development of a new, innovative method for the detoxification of APIs and its upscaling from the lab/pilot scale to the industrial scale, for the treatment of a pharmaceutical industry wastewater. The method that will be used for the detoxification of APIs from the pharmaceutical industry wastewater aims at significant toxicity reduction/elimination;
- Demonstration of the economic viability and cost-effectiveness of the project method, which is also shown to be effective under mild temperatures and atmospheric pressure conditions (significantly reducing its environmental footprint and operating costs);
- Use of solar energy (photovoltaics) for the production and storage of pure hydrogen (H2) during day-light hours, which will be then utilised as a reactant in the catalytic process, and as an energy carrier (using hydrogen fuel cells) for the remaining energy needs of the system, when solar power is not available; and
- A Life Cycle Analysis and a report for policymakers, with key project outcomes, and suggestions for Best Available Techniques to be included in the relevant BREF document.
