Life Sciences & Biotechnology
Title : | A solar photocatalytic driven removal of residual pharmaceuticals and Antibiotic-resistant bacteria isolated from the lakes of Hyderabad |
Area of research : | Life Sciences & Biotechnology |
Principal Investigator : | Dr. Aradhana Basu, Indian Institute Of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad, Telangana |
Timeline Start Year : | 2023 |
Timeline End Year : | 2025 |
Contact info : | aradhanabasu902@gmail.com |
Details
Executive Summary : | Pharma is one of the fastest budding sectors of the Indian economy, with strong and continuous growth during the second part of the twentieth century. Notable advancements in medical and pharmaceutical sciences and life-saving medicines such as antibiotics have been discovered in recent decades, but the misuse and overuse of the same lead to the global threat of “antibiotic resistance”. Hyderabad is the major place for manufacturing large amounts of drugs, and the pharmaceutical companies give Telangana thousands of jobs. Once known as the "city of lakes," Hyderabad's water bodies have been drastically polluted by the city's pharmaceutical companies. Antibiotics used to treat infections may lead to the formation of antibiotic residues, antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARBs), and antibiotic-resistant genes (ARGs). Conventional wastewater treatment methods for example ozonation and chlorination have shown major limitations such as the formation of potentially hazardous disinfection by-products (DBPs) and uncertain disinfection ability, therefore removing antibiotics or ARBs using appropriate technical processes is considered a fundamental challenge. As a result, there is an apparent need to develop alternative disinfection procedures. Lately, Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) and several photocatalysts have been researched for their potential possibilities in portable and wastewater decontamination. Biochar-based photocatalysts have gained a lot of interest in the environmental sector in recent times. For its unique surface structure, readily modifiable functional groups, chemical stability, and electrical conductivity, biochar may be employed as an excellent platform for supporting several catalytic nanoparticles. Despite many novel photocatalysts and a large literature, the following obstacles have hampered photocatalytic water treatment.
a) Using chemically unstable, expensive, scarce, or biologically hazardous photocatalysts may make the process unprofitable.
b) It is well known that getting the powder (photocatalyst) out of the treated slurry and using it again is both technically difficult and expensive.
c) In most studies, photocatalytic experiments have been conducted using sterilized water samples of a single contaminant at a known concentration.
d) Cost or life cycle information on state-of-the-art photocatalytic methods is needed.
To subdue the above challenges, the proposal focuses on the synthesis of biochar-based photocatalyst, catalytic degradation of antibiotics, and disinfection of antibiotic-resistant bacteria isolated from lakes adjacent to pharmaceutical industries in Hyderabad. The above setup will be validated using real water matrices. The study will emphasize photocatalyst recovery and reuse since it is the most technically challenging phase of any photocatalytic process. A Life Cycle Assessment study will be used to assess the current process’s sustainability and related environmental implications. |
Organizations involved