Treating industrial wastewater from pharmaceutical processes efficiently and safely

In the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, numerous regulations must be complied with in the production of drugs, cosmetics, pesticides, veterinary medicines, etc. in order to provide the end customer with an effective and safe product.

Moreover, these strict regulations extend from the mere production of active substances to the subsequent treatment of the wastewater produced.

Especially during the cleaning of the production facilities, wastewater is generated that is contaminated with these active substances. This results in a large number of different types of wastewater from the chemical and pharmaceutical industries:

• Wastewater containing hormones, e.g. ethinylestradiol, androstendione
• Wastewater containing antibiotics, e.g. amoxicillin, penicillin, chloramphenicol
• Wastewater from plant protection products containing herbicides and insecticides
• Wastewater containing cytostatic drugs, such as cabazitaxel, hydroxycarbamide
• Native oils, emulsifiers and other healthcare products
• and much more 

Sustainable wastewater treatment: Compliance with limit values and protection of the environment

Take medicines, for example: they are indispensable for our medical care - but once in the environment, they can have significant adverse effects. In particular, water bodies are polluted by pharmaceutical residues. This is mainly due to the fact that on-site wastewater treatment plants are reaching the limits of what is feasible. The increasingly stringent discharge limits can barely be met or not at all. The solution: vacuum distillation technology.

In many cases, the physical process of evaporation prevents the carry-over of active substances into the distillate. See for yourself: Our H2O application center will be happy to test your water sample under real conditions.

Possible types of wastewater:

• Wastewater from cleaning processes of plants and containers
• Waste and rinse water from synthesis processes
• Rinsing water from exhaust air scrubbers

Your solution could look like this

Our efficient and safe wastewater treatment is a complete system perfectly adapted to your production. Shown here is a solution for up to 1,600,000 gallons of wastewater per year. Other sizes are of course also available.

Your contaminated process water is collected in containers adapted to local requirements and from there it is fed into the heart of the system - the VACUDEST vacuum evaporator. Here the water is treated under optimal conditions in such a way that you can reduce the amount of wastewater many times over. Through the use of our patented Clearcat technology, the wastewater shows almost no residues of active pharmaceutical ingredients. Supplement the system with our new Purecat technology to reduce residual pollution of short-chain organic compounds even more.

By using our Destcontrol pH-regulator you can also rely on a constant distillate quality and a high process safety. Further post-treatment steps can be added depending on the general conditions – one example could be the use of activated carbon.

Would you like to find out about the right VACUDEST system for your operation? Contact our team of experts. Together with you we will find the best solution.

Your benefits at a glance

• Support in official approval procedures
• Consulting & wastewater analysis by the H2O application center
• Individual solution for your process
• Space-saving turnkey system
• Low operating costs thanks to maximum energy efficiency
• Low operating efforts thanks to fully automatic operation
• User-friendly Vacutouch machine control (Ready for Industry 4.0)
• Reliable compliance with internal and external limit values