Pharmaceutical active compounds in sewage sludge: Degradation improvement and conversion into an organic amendment by composting processes

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and European Research Funds (FEDER) [grant numbers CTM2017-84332-R] and from The Junta de Andalucía FEDER/Junta de Andalucía-Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades [B-RNM-204-UGR20]. GAP studies were funded by a CONACyt fellowship [grant number 772485] the contract of TRM has been funded by María Zambrano Program (Next Generation Funds, UE) and SG received a Undergraduate Initiation to Research Scholarship from the University of Granada [grant number 669608935].Appendix A. Supplementary material Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi. org/10.1016/j.wasman.2023.05.055.Around 143,000 chemicals find their fate in wastewater treatment plants in the European Union. Low efficiency on their removal at lab-based studies and even poorer performance at large scale experiments have been reported. Here, a coupled biological technology (bioaugmentation and composting) is proposed and proved for pharmaceutical active compounds degradation and toxicity reduction. The optimization was conducted through in situ inoculation of Penicillium oxalicum XD 3.1 and an enriched consortium (obtained from non-digested sewage sludge), into pilot scale piles of sewage sludge under real conditions. This bioaugmentation-composting system allowed a better performance of micropollutants degradation (21 % from the total pharmaceuticals detected at the beginning of the experiment) than a traditional composting process. Particularly, inoculation with P. oxalicum allowed the degradation of some recalcitrant compounds like carbamazepine, cotinine and methadone, and also produced better stabilization features in the mature compost (significant passivation of copper and zinc, higher macronutrients value, adequate physicochemical conditions for soil direct application and less toxic effect on germination) compared to the control and the enriched culture. These findings provide a feasible, alternative strategy to obtain a safer mature compost and a better removal of micropollutants performance at large scale.Grupo RNM-270 UGRSpanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and European Research Funds (FEDER) [grant numbers CTM2017-84332-R]Junta de Andalucía FEDER/Junta de Andalucía-Consejería de Transformación´Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades [B-RNM-204-UGR20]CONACyt fellowship [grant number 772485]María Zambrano Program (Next Generation Funds, UE)Undergraduate Initiation to Research Scholarship from the University of Granada [grant number 669608935