[Pharmwaste] 'Green' Catalyst Takes on Hormones in Wastewater

[DeBiasi,Deborah]

http://www.wef.org/ScienceTechnologyResources/Publications/WET/06Oct/06O
ctoberResearch.htm

Full article, printed version, is in (not available electronically at
this time):

Water Environment Laboratory Solutions
Volume 13, Number 5  October/November 2006

Research Notes 

'Green' Catalyst Takes on Hormones in Wastewater
 
Hydrogen peroxide, known for its bubbly cleansing of minor cuts and
scrapes, may work well as a special catalyst to combat hormones found in
wastewater. According to the U.S. Agricultural Research Service (ARS),
by combining hydrogen peroxide with the enzymelike catalyst Fe-TAML(r),
dyes, pesticides, and other environmental pollutants deteriorate. A June
ARS news release reported that the duo's powers of degradation may
include neutralizing hormones in municipal and agricultural wastewater.

ARS animal physiologist Nancy Shappell
(shappeln at fargo.ars.usda.gov)conducted a laboratory study in which she
combined Fe-TAML with hydrogen peroxide to break down estradiol, a
natural form of the female hormone estrogen, and ethinylestradiol, a
synthetic version used in contraceptives. Fe-TAML is short for iron
tetra-amido macrocyclic ligand, an ARS news release notes.

Shappell's collaborators are Terry Collins and Colin Horwitz of the
Carnegie Mellon University Institute for Green Oxidation Chemistry
(Pittsburgh), where Fe-TAML was developed, and Patrick Hunt and Kyoung
Ro, who work at the ARS Coastal Plains Soil, Water, and Plant Research
Center in Florence, S.C. 

According to Shappell, who is based at the ARS Red River Valley
Agricultural Research Center in Fargo, N.D., the study dovetails with
growing concern that hormones - whether flushed into wastewater or
excreted by livestock - can disrupt the endocrine systems of fish, other
wildlife, and potentially humans. Shappell noted that while wastewater
treatment plants remove most pollutants, contamination of surface and
groundwater still can occur. 

According to ARS, ethinylestradiol is troublesome because it is more
resistant than estradiol to degradation by microbes and other natural
processes. But in Shappell's lab experiments, hydrogen peroxide
reactions spurred by Fe-TAML were able to break down hormones. Indeed,
more than 95% were degraded within 5 minutes following exposure to the
reaction. Estradiol met a similar fate, said Shappell, who used
high-performance liquid chromatography and tandem mass-spectrometry
analysis to confirm the results. 

Shappell, ARS says, plans to team with the Florence lab to test Fe-TAML
on hormones in effluent from hog-farm lagoons. 

For more information, contact Shappell at shappeln at fargo.ars.usda.gov.

 

Deborah L. DeBiasi
Email:   dldebiasi at deq.virginia.gov
WEB site address:  www.deq.virginia.gov
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality
Office of Water Permit Programs
Industrial Pretreatment/Toxics Management Program
Mail:          P.O. Box 1105, Richmond, VA  23218 (NEW!)
Location:  629 E. Main Street, Richmond, VA  23219
PH:         804-698-4028
FAX:      804-698-4032