**4. Conclusion**

This chapter provides a brief overview regarding the problems associated with the pharmaceuticals present in the sewage/wastewater and their suitable treatment options. From the literature, it was understood that the problems related to the emerging contaminants and particularly for the pharmaceuticals are of great concern and require specific attention to protecting the environment and public health. Out of the various categories of pharmaceuticals, different treatment options are required and one single option is not sufficient to remove all the types of pharmaceuticals. The challenges associated with their accurate analysis, detection, and extraction due to their low concentration are also an important domain for further research. Regarding the treatment options in various studies, it was reported that the integrated processes are more advantageous in many ways for pharmaceuticals removal. For example, the post-biological treatment option after the ozonation process significantly improves the pharmaceutical removal. The other options like ASP and MBR are also considered useful but not efficient enough for their complete mineralization and removal. Also, the activated carbon-adsorption process is just a phase change mechanism system and required extensive research for further improvement. Various transformation/intermediate products are formed in AOPs treatment, hence required more advancements to remove those toxic intermediates from the water matrix. The up-gradation of the WWTPs is a very important step to improve the effluent quality considering the problems of the pharmaceuticals. The single and combined AOPs are limited to lab/pilot scale only and their full-scale applications are required, which should be focused on in future research for the best-fit alternative both economically and environmental friendly.

### **Acknowledgements**

The authors are grateful to the editor and reviewers.

## **Conflict of interest**

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

*An Overview of Occurrence and Removal of Pharmaceuticals from Sewage/Wastewater DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.100352*
