Sustainable and eco-friendly treatment of pharmaceuticals wastewater

he demand for sustainable and eco-friendly production and treatment of pharmaceuticals in relation to water is a significant challenge for environmental safety. The pharmaceuticals industry consumes a considerable amount of fresh water and discharges wastewater contaminated with organic and inorganic hazardous molecules, which can be toxic to the ecosystem. Using conventional methods, it is impossible to remove organic molecules and dissolve solids and suspended particles completely from traditional pharmaceutical wastewater (PWW) effluents. Because of this, an effective advanced treatment technology is required to reduce wastewater effluent from the pharmaceutical industry. This chapter summarizes pharmaceutical wastewater effluent characteristics and compares conventional treatment methods with advanced methods to identify the most effective wastewater treatment route. Accordingly, newly proposed treatment methods, such as membrane and membrane-integrated hybrid methods, are demonstrated to be more successful than conventional methods, and their sustainable and eco-friendly benefits are highlighted for treating wastewater in the pharmaceutical industry.