The pharmaceutical industry, which is related to national healthcare and health, is an indispensable and undeniable industry in the national economy. At present, China has become a major producer of pharmaceuticals and the largest producer of antibiotics. China can produce over 1500 types of chemical raw materials, with an annual output of over 2 million tons, accounting for more than 1/5 of global production. It is the world's largest producer and exporter of chemical raw materials. 

However, the pollution issues such as wastewater, exhaust gas, and drug residue generated from the production of chemical raw materials urgently need to be taken seriously. It is understood that there are a large number of pollutants in pharmaceutical wastewater. The national "Water Pollutant Discharge Standards for Chemical and Synthetic Pharmaceutical Industries" have stipulated 25 pollutant discharge limits, and some local standards have listed more than 60. In fact, the pollutants in wastewater are far more than these.

At the 2015 China Water Treatment Chief Engineer Salon, industry insiders unanimously agreed that environmental protection companies not only need to have a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of pharmaceutical wastewater, but also need to treat it according to its characteristics. Han Xiaoqing, President of Xiaoqing Environmental Protection Group, vividly summarized that "the treatment of pharmaceutical wastewater is difficult and often requires environmental protection companies to use eighteen different skills to handle it well."

What are the difficulties in handling them?

Wastewater pollution is closely related to products, the use of raw materials, production processes, etc. The pollution load generated by new production conditions of enterprises conflicts with the biological system and operating parameters of the original treatment facilities, often resulting in non-compliance for a period of time

The reporter learned that China's pharmaceutical industry is divided into seven sub industries: chemical drug raw material manufacturing, chemical drug preparation manufacturing, Chinese medicine decoction piece processing, traditional Chinese patent medicines and simple preparations production, veterinary drug manufacturing, biological drug manufacturing, and health materials and medical supplies manufacturing. Among these sub industries, the largest pollution load is in the production of chemical raw materials, accounting for approximately 80% of the entire industry.

Zhang Daoxin, an environmental engineer from the China Chemical Pharmaceutical Industry Association, stated that the production of chemical raw materials generally involves a high input-output ratio, low product output rate, and a large amount of pollutant production; The types, characteristics, and quantities of pollutants generated are directly related to the raw materials, process conditions, output, and management level required for the production variety. Its characteristics include a wide variety of pollutants, a small number of single pollutants (low economic utilization), biological toxicity, high concentration, basically irregular emissions, discontinuity and imbalance, and difficulty in biochemical treatment. "The treatment of high concentration wastewater has always been a challenge for the development of chemical raw material production."

It is understood that the sources of wastewater from chemical raw materials include workshop process water, equipment pipeline cleaning wastewater, wastewater generated from solid-liquid separation in drug extraction or refining processes, cleaning water for workshop employees, and domestic wastewater in the factory area. Meanwhile, the sources of wastewater also include boiler wastewater and discharged cooling water. In the wastewater of enterprises, all components of materials used in the production process, including pharmaceutical intermediates, unknown substances, and target substances (residual products), are dissolved in the wastewater; This also includes new products of wastewater under mixed aerobic and anaerobic conditions.

In the national water special survey, the compliance status of pharmaceutical companies is worrying: the number of pharmaceutical companies that can meet the new standard limits for water pollutant emissions in the pharmaceutical industry is quite small, and the compliance rates for chemical synthesis, fermentation, and formulation pharmaceutical wastewater are 9%, 12%, and 30%, respectively.

According to a survey, currently most urban sewage treatment plants in China require a COD ≤ 300mg/L for pharmaceutical industry wastewater. Even so, there are still some chemical synthesis and fermentation pharmaceutical enterprises that cannot meet the requirements, with a chemical synthesis proportion of up to 46% and fermentation proportion of 16%.

Another reason for the difficulty in treating wastewater from the production of chemical raw materials is that enterprises often adjust their products and output according to market demand. The pollution load generated by new production conditions conflicts with the biological system and operating parameters of the original treatment facilities, often resulting in a period of time when the standards are not met.

Zhang Daoxin introduced the pollution control of chemical raw material pharmaceutical wastewater as an example, saying, "The amount of pollution produced varies greatly among different products, processes, production equipment, and management levels. Different enterprises cannot use similar treatment technologies and processes for treatment."

Handling costs and engineering details are key

From a technical perspective, the continuous and stable discharge of wastewater from the production of chemical raw materials can be achieved, and the key is to see how much treatment investment and operating costs the enterprise can bear. The engineering undertaking unit should understand the adverse conditions that have occurred in the treatment of wastewater pollution in the enterprise that have been detrimental to the delivery of the project

It is understood that the production profit of bulk raw materials in China is meager, and the cost of pollution control accounts for 4% to 30% of the production cost. This situation often forces companies to minimize governance investment and operating costs as much as possible.

For this situation, Zhang Daoxin believes that from a technical perspective, the continuous and stable discharge of wastewater from the production of chemical raw materials can be achieved, and the key is to see how much governance investment and operating costs the enterprise can bear.

"Continuous and stable compliance with emission standards is a basic condition for enterprises to maintain normal production. Therefore, terminal treatment must be serious and long-term measures taken. To reduce pollution control costs, in addition to using efficient and low-cost treatment technologies, it is more important to strengthen self-discipline, actively carry out clean production, and implement source control and reduction.".

He also stated that as the unit responsible for wastewater treatment projects, pollution control must be tailored to the specific situation, and the entire bottom line of enterprise wastewater pollution must be understood. It is not only necessary to understand the water quality, quantity, and discharge rules of the wastewater produced by the enterprise in the production of products, but also to understand the pollution parameters of all approved products produced by the enterprise. It is necessary to determine the treatment technology and process that can not only meet the current requirements for standard discharge, but also withstand the impact of changes in product output.

"The unit responsible for wastewater treatment engineering should also understand the many unfavorable conditions that have occurred in the enterprise's wastewater pollution treatment, such as the impact load caused by changes in product output, insufficient construction of treatment capacity to deal with accidental discharge, enterprise management system and level, technical training for management and operation personnel of treatment facilities, and the use of low-priced equipment and changes in operating parameters by the enterprise to reduce treatment investment and operating costs. Based on this, small-scale and pilot experiments should be conducted according to the proposed treatment technology and process to confirm the feasibility of the proposed technology and process before entering the design and construction phase." Zhang Daoxin said.

Regarding these concerns, Han Xiaoqing has a deep understanding. He introduced, "Taking a pharmaceutical factory in Beijing as an example, the design institute initially used the MBR treatment process to treat the wastewater generated by the factory. However, due to the production of berberine by the factory, the wastewater containing berberine is discharged once a week, causing the death of all microorganisms and causing a significant impact on wastewater treatment."

He suggested that environmental protection companies should reserve a sufficiently large regulating pool when treating wastewater. We have found that water quality and quantity regulation issues are very important. Each project must have an accident pool, or the capacity of the regulation pool should be very large. For example, if a company produces water containing yellow

For example, in the case of Liansu wastewater, the wastewater should be placed in an accident tank and mixed slightly in the regulating tank during treatment, so that the impact on microorganisms is not significant. "

In addition, Zhang Daoxin emphasized that pollution control is not only a terminal treatment, but also a systematic engineering. Practice has proven that the old path of only considering terminal governance is not feasible. Only by enhancing the concept of green pharmaceuticals in the production system, implementing clean production, process control, and greatly reducing pollution production, coupled with efficient and low-cost treatment technologies, can enterprises truly achieve stable and standardized emissions, as well as the three unifications of economic, environmental, and social benefits.

How to choose technology and governance models?

The governance plan should be a systematic plan with clear source control, reduction, and terminal governance technologies; The prospect of third-party governance is broad

The pharmaceutical wastewater treatment technology is diverse, and the selection and application are the focus of industry attention. It is understood that pharmaceutical wastewater treatment technologies mainly include three types: physical method, chemical method, and biological method. Physical methods include homogenization, dilution, precipitation, flotation, filtration, concentration crystallization, adsorption, extraction, reverse osmosis, etc. Chemical methods include coagulation precipitation, ion exchange, electrodialysis, incineration, neutralization, oxidation, and other chemical reactions. Biological laws include aerobic treatment methods such as activated sludge and biofilters, as well as anaerobic treatment methods.

However, how can we choose an economical and applicable wastewater treatment technology? Regarding this, some professionals have stated that these technologies each have their own advantages, disadvantages, and applicability. In practical applications, they often need to be used in conjunction with each other. Physical methods are often used for primary processing. Its main purpose is to remove suspended solids, as well as some substances that consume BOD and COD, as well as heavy metal toxins. Secondary treatment requires the removal of most substances that consume BOD and COD, and biological treatment is the most commonly used method of secondary treatment. The effluent after biological treatment often contains small amounts of suspended solids and nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. Third level treatment produces recycled water, achieving the recycling and reuse of wastewater.

Zhang Daoxin emphasized that when the environmental protection industry intervenes in governance projects, it should truthfully introduce the current technological situation, technical capabilities, investment amount, and operating costs to Party A, help Party A sort out the pollution source control points in the production process, help Party A reduce pollution load at the source, and thus enable Party A to bear lower pollution governance costs, achieve continuous and stable operation of governance facilities, and provide guarantees for Party A to achieve normal production and operation.

"The governance plan should be a systematic solution with clear source control, reduction, and terminal governance technologies. This thinking is not advanced, and there have been some successful engineering cases of such system management and governance," he said.

In addition to selecting suitable technologies, entrusting wastewater to third-party treatment in the pharmaceutical industry is a new choice for governance models. Zhang Daoxin believes that third-party governance is currently emerging and developing, which is an opportunity for pharmaceutical companies to choose pollution control models. Introducing third parties for investment or operational management is very beneficial for solving investment difficulties and decomposing pollution control risks. "The result of doing so is that, firstly, pollution control becomes more specialized, and secondly, companies have to pay for third-party governance operations and management, which will motivate companies to put in effort in source reduction."

Zhang Daoxin used a company as an example to introduce that the wastewater from a subsidiary of a company is discharged to the head office's sewage treatment plant for treatment, and the cost pressure on the subsidiary is not significant. Later, it was changed to charging based on the amount of wastewater discharged and the load, which increased the cost significantly. The subsidiary felt pressure and actively sought solutions. "The separation of governance, operation and management from polluters has a positive effect on promoting enterprises' source reduction, and there are many successful examples of this. Of course, pharmaceutical companies often worry about the impact of external personnel on their technical confidentiality work. However, in the new normal of environmental information disclosure, this is no longer a reason."

He also emphasized that in order to regulate the market of third-party governance, it is necessary to improve the regulations and policies of third-party governance and establish an honest market environment. "We hope that the environmental protection industry and pharmaceutical companies can join hands and start the 'icebreaking journey' of third-party governance as soon as possible."

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