Browsing by Author "Pena, Angelina"
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- Pharmaceuticals removal from wastewater with microalgae: a pilot studyPublication . Pereira, André; Morais, Etiele Greque; Silva, Liliana; Pena, Angelina; Freitas, Andreia; Teixeira, Margarida Ribau; Varela, João; Barreira, LuísaUrban wastewaters contain pharmaceuticals that are not appropriately removed in conventional wastewater treatments, limiting treated water reuse. Microalgae have been shown to remove pharmaceuticals from urban wastewater in laboratory trials, but few studies have been conducted under natural conditions. In this work, pharmaceutical removal was assessed in a pilot-scale microalgal tertiary wastewater treatment in real conditions. Even after secondary treatment, the water contained measurable amounts of pharmaceuticals (an average of 218.4 ng/L) that significantly decreased to 39.83 ng/L at the exit of the microalgal system. Pharmaceuticals’ average removal rates were slightly higher in the summer (79.1%) than in autumn (71.1%). Antibiotics and antipsychotics were better removed (88.8 and 86.4%, respectively) than antihypertensives (75.3%) and others (Bezafibrate and Diclofenac; 64.0%). Physicochemical characteristics of the wastewater influenced pharmaceutical removal; significant positive correlations were observed between anti-hypertensive drug removal and ammonium concentration (r = 0.53; p < 0.05), total nitrogen and total pharmaceutical removal (r = 0.46; p < 0.05), and total nitrogen and antipsychotic drug removal (r = 0.47; p < 0.05). The results demonstrate the effectiveness of microalgal tertiary treatment in the removal of pharmaceuticals.
- Uptake, accumulation and metabolization of the antidepressant fluoxetine by Mytilus galloprovincialisPublication . Silva, Liliana J. G.; Martins, Margarida C.; Pereira, André M. P. T.; Meisel, Leonor M.; Gonzalez-Rey, Maria; Bebianno, Maria João; Lino, Celeste M.; Pena, AngelinaFluoxetine, a selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant, is among the most prescribed pharmaceutical active substances worldwide. This study aimed to assess its accumulation and metabolization in the mussel Mytillus galloprovincialis, considered an excellent sentinel species for traditional and emerging pollutants. Mussels were collected from Ria Formosa Lagoon, Portugal, and exposed to a nominal concentration of fluoxetine (75 ng L-1) for 15 days. Approximately 1 g of whole mussel soft tissues was extracted with acetonitrile:formic acid, loaded into an Oasis MCX cartridge, and fluoxetine analysed by liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MSn). After 3 days of exposure, fluoxetine was accumulated in 70% of the samples, with a mean of 2.53 ng g(-1) dry weight (d.w.) and norfluoxetine was only detected in one sample (10%), at 3.06 ng g(-1) d.w. After 7 days of exposure, the accumulation of fluoxetine and norfluoxetine increased up to 80 and 50% respectively, and their mean accumulated levels in mussel tissues were up to 4.43 and 2.85 ng g(-1) d.w., respectively. By the end of the exposure period (15 days), both compounds were detected in 100% of the samples (mean of 9.31 and 11.65 ng g(-1) d.w., respectively). Statistical analysis revealed significant accumulation differences between the 3rd and 15th day of exposure for fluoxetine, and between the 3rd and 7th against the 15th day of exposure for norfluoxetine. These results suggest that the fluoxetine accumulated in mussel tissues is likely to be metabolised into norfluoxetine with the increase of the time of exposure, giving evidence that at these realistic environmental concentrations, toxic effects of fluoxetine in mussel tissues may occur. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.