Acta Chimica Slovaca (ACS) publishes papers on fundamental and applied aspects of chemistry, biochemistry, chemical technology, chemical engineering and process control, biotechnology and food technology. Welcome are also topics which include chemical aspects of materials, physical chemistry and chemical physics, analytical chemistry, macromolecular chemistry and biomedical engineering.

Influence of selected antibiotics on respirometric activity of activated sludge

Dóra Varjúová *, Petra Szabová, Igor Bodík

Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Slovak University of Technology, Radlinského 9, 812 37 Bratislava, Slovak Republic

E-mail: * dora.varjuova@stuba.sk

Abstract: The main topic of this study is to determine the effect of selected antibiotics on the respirometric activity of sewage sludge microorganisms. Within the practical part of the work, several respirometric measurements were performed with activated sludge from a wastewater treatment plant, while the influence of three selected antibiotics — sulfamethoxazole, sulfapyridine, and ciprofloxacin, on sludge activity was monitored. The aim of the work was to point out the inhibitory effect of all monitored compounds on sludge activity and to quantify the inhibitory effect. For sulfamethoxazole (in the concentration range of 0.142—1.42 mg·L–1), the determined inhibition was in the range of 9.67 %—27.7 %, depending on the concentration of the test substance and the type of respirometric measurements. For sulfapyridine, inhibition values ranged from 1.13 % to 31.9 % for the concentration range from 0.134 to 1.34 mg·L–1. Ciprofloxacin inhibited the activity of activated sludge microorganisms in the range of 4.55 % to 28.8 % (at CPX concentrations from 0.104 to 1.04 mg·L–1).

Keywords: activated sludge, antibiotics, inhibition, respirometry, wastewater treatment

Acta Chimica Slovaca, Vol. 14, No. 1, 2021, pp. 86—96, DOI: 10.2478/acs-2021-0011