Boron doped diamond electrode - The elimination of psychoactive drugs and resistant bacteria from wastewater

The study reports the results from applying polycrystalline boron doped diamond (BDD) thin films in eliminating water micropollutants and resistant bacteria. The results documented that BDD anodes were able to effectively decrease the concentration of most of the analyzed pharmaceuticals and drugs by more than 51%. In the case of coliforms and staphylococci the efficiency level reached almost 100%. The study investigates the occurrence of 29 selected psychoactive drugs and metabolites in 18 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in the Slovak and Czech Republic. It should be mentioned that the under investigation geographic area has a population of more than 1.5 million inhabitants. The analyses of influents and effluents were performed using in-line SPE-LC-MS/MS. It was found that the most concentrated substances were cotinine, tramadol, methamphetamine and venlafaxine, and compounds such as tramadol, venlafaxine, oxazepam and citalopram and had limited degradation efficiency at all monitored WWTPs with a maximum of 30%. Antibiotic resistant coliforms and staphylococci were also found to be present in the Slovak wastewaters; whereas in Czech effluents, no chloramphenicol and tetracycline resistant E. coli and S. aureus were detected.