Researchers Use Enzymes To Combat PPCP Contamination

Researchers at the University of Minnesota are studying new ways to treat pharmaceuticals in wastewater.

From cocaine to birth-control pills, drugs are a major concern for the water and wastewater industries. Trace amounts of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) flow through wastewater plants and end up in water supplies.

As Water Online previously reported, recent research suggests that "exposure to PPCPs in drinking water may subject humans, particularly males, to gender-morphing and other reproductive system alteration."

The researchers are focusing on the drug carbamazepine, which is difficult for waste plants to combat, according to the Post Bulletin. Used to treat epilepsy and ADHD, the drug was the subject of a wastewater treatment study published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

“Emerging contaminants are principally personal care products not readily removed by conventional wastewater treatment and, with an increasing reliance on water recycling, become disseminated in drinking water supplies. Carbamazepine, a widely used neuroactive pharmaceutical, increasingly escapes wastewater treatment and is found in potable water,” the study explained.

The researchers used “a predictive method to determine the correct enzymes that break down pharmaceuticals in water. The method calculates the likelihood that a drug eventually can break down,” the Post Bulletin reported.

Researcher Kelly Aukema said there has been minimal research into enzymes that are useful in wastewater treatment.

"The impact will not be immediate, but it is our hope that this information can be used for the design of better wastewater treatment for the removal of chemicals of emerging concern — both here in Minnesota and around the world," Aukema said, per the report.

The findings?

“The prediction identified biphenyl dioxygenase from Paraburkholderia xenovorans LB400 as the best candidate enzyme for metabolizing carbamazepine. The rate of degradation described here is 40 times greater than the best reported rates,” the report said.

For similar stories visit Water Online’s Wastewater Contaminant Removal Solutions Center.