Global NEST Journal

The objective of this work was to determine the composition and production rate of cytostatic pharmaceutical waste produced by Theagenion Cancer Treatment Hospital (TCTH) in Thessaloniki, Greece. This information is necessary for the design and costing of management systems for cytostatic pharmaceutical waste, for assessing their environmental impact and for health and safety considerations. A total of 826 kg cytostatic pharmaceutical waste was collected, manually separated and weighed over a period of ten working weeks. Total cytostatic pharmaceutical waste was classified in three categories, vial waste comprising 38.3%, syringe waste with 4.5% and intravenous therapy (IV) waste with 57.2% of the total. Vial waste only was classified according to the active ingredients in alkylating agents, antimetabolites, cytotoxic antibiotics, Vinca alkaloids and “other” antineoplastic drugs. The overall cytostatic waste production by the hospital was 22900(6955) g/d, with numbers in parenthesis representing standard deviations. The average unit production rates of total cytostatic pharmaceutical waste were 140(64) g/patient/d and 201(61) g/bed/d. The respective unit production rates were: (1) for vial waste 41(11) g/patient/d and 77(46) g/bed/d, (2) for syringe waste 5(1.5) g/patient/d and 9(5) g/bed/d and (3) for IV waste 94(63) g/patient/d and 115(43) g/bed/d.

In this study activated carbon is produced from areca plant leaves, an agricultural waste material. The physical and chemical structural characterisation of the prepared carbon was carried out by FTIR, TGA and XRD analysis. FTIR study showed the presence of several functional groups, such as C=O, C=C, OH, NH on the surface of the activated carbon. To determine the adsorption efficiency, studies were carried out using cationic and anionic dyes and it was found to be dependent on contact time, temperature and concentration of the solution. The experimental data obtained were correlated with the Langmuir, Freundlich isotherm model. Kinetic data were obtained using second order rate equation. Probable mechanism of adsorption process with the dyes was analysed. As the prepared carbon is cost efficient, abundant and has high uptake capacity, it can be used as an adsorbent for fresh water or waste water treatment. It could be considered as promising material for the removal of dyes.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the mercury removal from aqueous solutions by using L-Cysteine functionalized Multi-walled Carbon Nanotubes. The effect of pH, adsorbent dose, contact time and mercury concentration in removal efficiency was evaluated. Multi -walled carbon nanotubes were functionalized with L-cysteine. The Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was used to find the optimum process parameters. The results showed that an increase in contact time, pH and adsorbent dosage resulted in an increase of the adsorption rate. However, removal efficiency decreases by increasing mercury concentration. The highest and lowest removal efficiencies of mercury were 89% and 17%, respectively. The maximum adsorption rate was occurring at 120 min. It is concluded that L-Cysteine functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes is an effective adsorbent for removal from aqueous solutions.

In this study, the application of Sn/Sb/Ni-Ti electrodes for the treatment of waste streams were investigated which is promising for ozone production by electrolysis of water because of their stability and high potential for ozone evolution reaction. These series of anodes have a high electrochemical ozone generation potential at ambient conditions (approximately up to 40% current efficiency). But using and testing of these novel anodes for real wastewater are too limited in the literature. Titanium mesh substrate coated with Sn/Sb/Ni-Ti alloy was used as anode immersed in wastewater at room temperature with platinized titanium cathode. These electrodes used for COD and color removal from OID wastewater in Inegol, Bursa, Turkey. Five operational parameters were evaluated for electrochemical COD and color removal processes, such as pH, salt content, applied voltage/current, current efficiency and contact time. Experimental results showed that after 30 min the electrochemical oxidation efficiency of COD and color could reach up to 98% and 99% respectively at pH 8.2 and temperature of 25°C as the optimum conditions. Current density observed as the most effective parameter for COD and color removal efficiencies. The lowest energy consumption was between 10-25 mA cm-2 of current density with only 0.6 kWh gCOD−1, while the highest energy consumption was 100 mA cm-2 of current density with 9.12 kWh gCOD−1 . The optimum current density value has been found as 50 mA cm-2 with 4.05 kWh gCOD−1 . These results were also supported with ANOVA test.