Effects of sewer biofilm on the degradation of drugs in sewage: A microcosm study

• Published in: Journal of hazardous materials Vol. 424; no. Pt D; p. 127666
• Main Authors: Pagsuyoin, Sheree A., Luo, Jiayue, Chain, Frédéric J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 15-02-2022
• Subjects: Biofilms; Drugs of abuse; Illicit Drugs; In-sewer degradation; Sewage; Sewage biofilm; Sorption; Waste Water; Wastewater-based epidemiology; Water Pollutants, Chemical - analysis; AMP; Sewage biofilm; In-sewer degradation; SPE; Drugs of abuse; FEN; Sorption; MOR; WWTP; COC; Wastewater-based epidemiology; WBE; MTD
• ISSN: 0304-3894; 1873-3336
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.127666

A thorough understanding of the in-sewer stability of chemical biomarkers is critical in applying wastewater-based surveillance of community drug use. In this study, we examined the effects of sewer biofilm on the degradation of commonly abused drugs, namely, morphine, fentanyl, cocaine, and amphetamine, in wastewater using 48-h batch degradation tests. The experiments were designed to distinguish among abiotic, biochemical, and physical degradation processes, and used mature biofilm obtained from an actual sewer line. Parallel microcosm tests were conducted using wastewater with and without suspended biofilm. Results indicate that first order kinetics describe the degradation of the drugs in both wastewater and wastewater-biofilm microcosms. Amphetamine was most stable in all microcosms, with a maximum removal of only 34% after 48 h. Abiotic chemical transformation played a major role in the degradation of morphine (kab = 0.018 h-1), fentanyl (kab = 0.022 h-1) and cocaine (kab = 0.049 h-1) in wastewater. Fentanyl removal from wastewater was also influenced by the presence of biofilm (kf = 0.015 h-1). This study is the first to report on the effect of sewer biofilm on fentanyl degradation, and highlights the need to account for in-sewer drug stability in wastewater-based drug use estimation, particularly for chemicals with high affinity for organics.
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•Examined effect of sewer biofilm in drug degradation via 48-h batch microcosm tests.•First report on fentanyl degradation kinetics for aerobic sewer condition.•Sewer biofilm plays role in fentanyl removal from wastewater.•Amphetamine is highly stable in wastewater.•Drug stability in sewage should be considered in WBE drug use estimation.