Propranolol is a non-selective β-adrenergic receptor antagonist, or beta blocker. It’s on the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines. Propranolol Removal from water is essential due to its endocrine disrupting properties it can have dangerous effects on humans. This is why we need to remove the chemical from water.
We ran various concentrations of Propranol through our Nyex Rosalox water treatment system and found we were able to reduce both large and small concentrations to extremely low levels (limit of detection). The system parameters can be defined by the application criteria, so that the level of reduction matches the requirements.
Arvia’s Nyex Rosalox™ technologies reduced 0.0004 µg/L to below the limit of detection and from 0.26 µg/L to 0.02 µg/L.
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Patients with heart problems take propranolol to:
How Propranolol gets into water is mainly because it’s taken orally. A percentage is not absorbed by the body and the residue is excreted, finding its way into sewers.
Other causes of Propranolol in water include improper disposal or dumping.
Many municipal water treatment works were built some time ago and were never designed to remove endocrine disruptors, as the harmful effects of these compounds were not known.
As a result, it passes through waterworks and thence into watercourses and the sea, where beta blockers in water have been proven to adversely affect marine life.
Jerome Budin
Water Treatment Consultant
Book a meeting at your convenience to talk to one of our specialists about your wastewater issues. Or send us an enquiry.
Using RO (reverse osmosis) techniques and by the use of ozone introduction, it is possible to remove appreciable quantities of Propranolol from water. This is because all beta blocker molecules have moieties, which are reactive towards ozone.
For some years, this has been one of the accepted methods of removing beta blockers from water. The major disadvantage of this method is that ozone is injurious to health and challenging to handle.
Hydroxyl radicals in Beta blockers can be adsorbed by GAC (granular activated carbon) filtration systems with acceptable results in many cases
The obvious disadvantage of this system is that the media degrades, and any GAC system will then need taking offline to be replenished. Additionally, the residue from this process is a toxic sludge which either has to be re-activated or incinerated – both of which require large amounts of energy. In extreme cases, spent carbon media is buried in landfill.
Chemical treatment and GAC filtration techniques to remove propranolol from water have major environmental and safety disadvantages compared with our eco alternative – the Arvia Rosalox™ system.
It’s a unique combination of adsorption and electrochemistry and has been proven to remove Propranolol from water down to very low levels.
In tests conducted by Arvia, 99% of propranolol was removed from municipal wastewater; from 0.0004 µg/L to below the limit of detection. In another test, we removed from 0.26 µg/L to 0.02 µg/L, showing the system’s capabilities both at trace and low levels of contamination.
