Review Reports

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Title: Monitoring of a broad set of pharmaceuticals in wastewaters by high-resolution mass spectrometry and evaluation of heterogenous catalytic ozonation for their removal in a pre-industrial level unit

Authors: Christina Nannou, Efthimia Kaprara, Savvina Psaltou, Maria Salapasidou, Panagiota-Aikaterini Palasantza, Panagiotis Diamantopoulos, Dimitra Lambropoulou, Manassis Mitraka , Anastasios Zouboulis

 

General Comments:

o             In this paper a study of monitoring of a broad set of PhACs (>130) in a WWTP close to Thessaloniki (Greece), as well as to evaluate the potential of heterogeneous catalytic ozonation for the removal of CECs from wastewater through a continuous flow system is presented.

o             The structure of the article fulfills the structure of a research article.

o             Five keywords that help increase the discoverability of the article via search engines are included by the authors.

o             The Introduction section provide sufficient background information for readers in the immediate field to understand the problem that this study addresses.

o             The authors present in the Materials and Methods section, the reagents, the experimental method and the equipment used, but also the results.

o             In the Results section, the authors present and interpret the results of their study. Also, the results are compared with those presented in the literature.

o             The paper ends with the Conclusions. In this section the authors mention the conclusions of their research study.

I suggest to accept after minor revision, but please correct the next typing errors:

1. Pg.5, line 174: “for at most one week”, should be replaced by “maximum one week”;
2. pg. 8, line 290: “the aquatic among others”, the authors should mention if they refer to the aquatic animals, or aquatic life?
3. pg. 9, line 298: “Tolfenamic acid is a drug/compounds administrated to”;
4. pg. 11, line 412: “was found ate (at) 15ng/L”
5. pg. 13, line 475: “The lins (lines)”
6. pg. 15, lines 501-502: the paragraph should be reformulated.
7. pg. 18, line 594: “pose varying environmental impact may and potential for bioaccumulation” – the sentence should be reformulated;
8. throughout the text, “implies” should be replaced by “involve”.

 

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Abstract

The role of WWTPs is to retain wastewater pollutants. Obviously, a WWTP that operates at optimum parameters and produces effluents in accordance with the regulations in force in each country, does not pose a danger to the environment and public health. Therefore, the lines 18-19 are incorrect and need to be reworded: Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) that do not operate at optimum parameters and release effluents that are not in accordance with regulations in force are a major source of contamination for water bodies and a danger to public health.

Lines 27-29: The results from catalytic ozonation unit operation indicate that the introduction of a proper solid material that acts as catalyst can enhance the removal of CECs.

 

Keywords

In this section it is preferable not to repeat words from the title, but to emphasize other suggestive words regarding the content of the paper.

 

Introduction

Line 37: “galloping increase” is grammatically, a pleonasm. Galloping is not needed here.

Line 40: both human and veterinary medicine were used and will be used as long as there will be life. Please revise the English in all manuscript and use the correct terms. Correct to “use of medicinal products for human and veterinary purpose”.

Lines 41-43: Their worldwide occurrence in waterways has reached dangerous levels for the environment and human health.

Line 45: Therefore, PhACs find their way

Line 59: conventional WWTPs, their efficiency in removing CECs

Line 61: physico-chemical properties

Line 62: please remove “themselves”

Line 62: please replace “in the removal.” by “in eliminating CECs.”.

Lines 63-65: Contaminants with low sorption coefficients are more susceptible in remaining in the aqueous phase and have elevated mobility, so they transfer into receiving water bodies.

Line 66: highly advanced treatment facilities, not highly advanced treatments.

Line 86: (catalytic ozonation), which is based…

Line 91: influent and effluent concentration levels, respectively removal efficiencies  

Line 94: pharmaceuticals discharge

 

Materials and methods

Line 116: October 2014.

Line 117: a combination of mechanical pretreatment processes

Line 122: processes (“carousel”-type

Line 123: the effluent is disinfected by ozonation

Line 123: the sea (Thermaikos Gulf).

Line 132: from wastewater, a pre-industrial

Line 135: as presented in Figure 1.

Line 149: replace “with the view to assess” by “aiming to assess”

Line 173: Samples were pretreated in the laboratory

 

 

Results and discussion

Line 232: replace “study. Out of them,” by “of which”

Line 243: replace “most highly” by “widely”

Lines 245-247 are not a sentence, they are grammatically incorrect. “This is unsurprisingly,”

Line 271: attributed

For betablockers, use either “b-blockers” or “β-blockers” in all manuscript.

Line 460: Τhe removal efficiency (%)

Line 461: during treatment

Line 471: Ofrydopoulou et al. [9]

Lines 493-495: Rearrange the material (place the figures) so as not to break the 3-page text.

 

Conclusion

This section can be improved, possibly with aspects related to the relevance and practical applicability of the study or with future research directions.

 

Recommendations: Overall, the study is interesting and includes a wide range of emerging pollutants, found in untreated wastewater as well as in the effluents of wastewater treatment plants, well known for their negative effects on water and aquatic biodiversity, but also on human health. However, before publishing the manuscript, I recommend checking the correctness of the translation and some aspects of English grammar.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx