Characteristics of Pharmaceutical Wastewater in the Industrial Sector

Pharmaceutical industrial wastewater mainly consists of four categories: wastewater from antibiotic production, wastewater from synthetic drug production, wastewater from traditional Chinese medicine production, and the washing and rinsing wastewater generated during the production process of various pharmaceutical preparations. The pharmaceutical industry can be divided into biopharmaceuticals and chemical pharmaceuticals according to the production process. The wastewater from the pharmaceutical industry is characterized by complex components, high organic matter content, high toxicity, deep color, high salt content, particularly poor biodegradability, and intermittent discharge. It belongs to a type of industrial wastewater that is difficult to treat. With the development of China's pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical wastewater has gradually become one of the important pollution sources. How to treat this type of wastewater is a difficult problem in environmental protection today. According to the "Pollutant Discharge Standards for the Pharmaceutical Industry", the pollutant discharge standard system for the pharmaceutical industry consists of six sub - standards, namely, standards for fermentation - based pharmaceuticals, chemical synthesis - based pharmaceuticals, extraction - based pharmaceuticals, bio - engineering and biological product - based pharmaceuticals, traditional Chinese medicine - based pharmaceuticals, and mixed - packaging and processing preparation - based pharmaceuticals.

1. Classification of Fermentation - Based Biopharmaceutical Wastewater

1.1 Wastewater Discharged from the Main Production Process

This type of wastewater is the most important category, including waste filtrate, waste mother liquor, other mother liquors, and solvent recovery residues. Characteristics of the wastewater: high concentration, significant variations in acidity, alkalinity, and temperature, and drug residues are the most prominent features. Although the volume of water may not be large, the pollutant content is high, contributing a large proportion to the COD in the total wastewater, and it is difficult to treat.

1.2 Wastewater Discharged from Auxiliary Processes

It includes process cooling water, blowdown from the circulating cooling system, wastewater from the deionized water preparation process, and condensate water from distillation (heating) equipment. Characteristics of the wastewater: low pollutant concentration, but large water volume, strong seasonality, and significant differences between enterprises. This type of wastewater has also become the target of water - saving efforts in enterprises in recent years.

1.3 Flushing Water

It includes container and equipment flushing water, filter equipment flushing water, resin column flushing water, and floor flushing water. The filter equipment flushing water has a high pollutant concentration, mainly in the form of suspended solids. If not properly controlled, it can also become an important pollution source. The resin column flushing water has a large volume, with a relatively high pollutant concentration in the initial flushing stage and significant variations in acidity and alkalinity. It is also an important type of wastewater.

1.4 Domestic Sewage

It is related to the number of employees in the enterprise, their living habits, and management status, but it is not the main type of wastewater. Chemical pharmaceuticals are produced by preparing drugs or intermediates through chemical reactions using organic or inorganic raw materials, including pure chemical synthesis pharmaceuticals and semi - synthetic pharmaceuticals.