With experience delivering economic water process technology to the pharmaceutical industry for nearly a decade, Headworks BIO enables pharmaceutical manufacturers to cost-effectively meet stringent regulatory discharge standards while maintaining focus on their core business.
Facing stringent discharge standards under the EPA Clean Water Act, pharmaceutical manufacturers increasingly rely on Headworks BIO MBBR environmental water processes for reduction of target organics including acetone, isopropyl alcohol (IPA), benzene, MIBK, THF, and chlorobenzene.
Many organic solvents commonly used in the pharmaceutical industry are biodegradable and can be economically treated via MBBR biofilm carrier processes. Resilient to process fluctuations and designed of automated operation, MBBR technology delivers highly efficient water process capabilities optimized for the unique needs of the pharmaceutical industry.
Integrating conventional aerated biological treatment with MBBR biofilm carrier technology, this unique combination achieves high-rate biodegradation of organic matter within a compact, economically operated system. MBBR biofilm carriers establish a high-density population of bacteria within the process; this bacteria naturally oxidizes organic wastewater constituents, reliably biodegrading target constituents from process wastewater streams prior to discharge.
Unlike MBBR, conventional biological processes cannot sustain sufficient HRT (hours retention time; the number of hours water is retained in the treatment process) for biodegradation of targeted pharmaceutical constituents. Also unlike MBBR, physical/chemical processes are not economic for pharmaceutical applications due to the high operational costs driven by chemical consumption over the lifecycle of the system.
MBBR pharmaceutical wastewater process systems offer several unique advantages:
- Compact design offering excellent land-use or facility-space efficiency
- Resilient biofilm carrier process is highly resistant to influent fluctuations
- Automated operation
- Process optimization prior to installation via Headworks BIO testing services
- Economically meets application-specific effluent discharge requirements
Headworks BIO AOP technology is also ideal for pharmaceutical wastewater processes requiring destruction of pharmaceutical residuals that are resistant to conventional biological treatment. Residuals have been discovered in surface water bodies, having arrived there from sewage or industrial effluent. Many pharmaceutical compounds pass unaffected through humans and animals as well as through conventional physical and biological treatment processes. Many of these targeted compounds can be efficiently destroyed from pharmaceutical process wastewater prior to discharge via AOP destruct technology using ultra-violet powered oxidative processes.
