Hospital Wastewater Germany
Over the last ten years some studies have examined the special treatment of hospital wastewater directly at
the source. The most relevant project is the European joint project “PILLS” (www.pills-project.eu) where six
European countries cooperate to gather knowledge for this application. Within the project frame two large
scale installations (Marienhospital / Germany and Isala hospital / Netherlands) are operated.
Subsequently to a pilot study, which has been founded by the North Rhine Westphalian ministry of the
environment (Pinnekamp 2009) another full scale plant is in operation at the Kreiskrankenhaus Waldbröl
since 2010. In this demonstration plant hospital wastewater is treated by an advanced combination of MBR
and subsequent ozone oxidation
Conclusions
APIs originates from different source points including pharmaceutical production sites, hospital waste, and
household waste. Hot spots with higher concentration levels are the raw wastewaters from pharmaceutical
production sites and wastewaters generated at hospitals. Environmentally relevant concentration of APIs
may also be in the effluents of municipal WWTPs
Ireland established specific regulatory guidelines for wastewaters from pharmaceutical production sites. The
treatment process combination of MBR followed by Ozone has proven its availability to fulfill the regulatory
requirements. The in Ireland installed WWTP is meeting the original design goals to reduce APIs in the site’s
final effluent and sets a new benchmark for full-scale pharmaceutical manufacturing wastewater treatment.
In summary the WWTP reduces total APIs from the wastewater by 99.94%; reduces estrogenicity 1,000
fold to a level believed to be of no concern to human health or to the environment; and produces a nontoxic
effluent. Additionally, it was shown that this treated effluent could be beneficially reclaimed as makeup
water for cooling towers and potentially for other beneficial reuse purposes.
Other guidelines (e.g. EU water directive and California Draft Groundwater Recharge Regulations) are still
under development but it is obvious that stricter regulations for pharmaceuticals will be promulgated in the
future. Results from research projects and technology evaluations shows that the treatment combination of
MBR followed by Ozone is preferred very effective solution for API removal and for other applications
including hospital wastewater and municipal WWTPs.