Occurrence of cyclophosphamide and ifosfamide in aqueous environment and their removal by biological and abiotic wastewater treatment processes

Cytostatic drug residues in the aqueous environment are of concern due to their possible adverse effects on non-target organisms. Here we report the occurrence and removal efficiency of cyclophosphamide (CP) and ifosfamide (IF) by biological and abiotic treatments including advanced oxidation processes (AOPs). Cyclophosphamide was detected in hospital wastewaters (14-22,000 ng L− 1), wastewater treatment plant influents (19-27 ng L− 1) and effluent (17 ng L− 1), whereas IF was detected only in hospital wastewaters (48-6800 ng L− 1). The highest removal efficiency during biological treatment (attached growth biomass in a flow through bioreactor) was 59 ± 15% and 35 ± 9.3% for CP and IF, respectively. Also reported are the removal efficiencies of both compounds from wastewater using hydrodynamic cavitation (HC), ozonation (O3) and/or UV, either individually or in combination with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Hydrodynamic cavitation did not remove CP and IF to any significant degree. The highest removal efficiencies: 99 ± 0.71% for CP and 94 ± 2.4% for IF, were achieved using UV/O3/H2O2 at 5 g L− 1 for 120 min. When combined with biological treatment, removal efficiencies were > 99% for both compounds. This is the first report of combined biological and AOP treatment of CP and IF from wastewater with a removal efficiency > 99%.