Performance Evaluation of Wastewater Treatment Plants in Removing Ibuprofen: A Case Study of Babylon Governorate, Iraq

Ibuprofen (IBU) is considered an emergent pollutant owing to its presence in different environmental matrixes (especially in wastewater), high stability, low degradation rate, and widespread use.The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the occurrence of IBU in both the effluent and influent of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and to assess the capacity of these facilities to reduce its concentration.Samples were collected monthly from January to December 2024 from five plants within Babylon Governorate, Iraq: Al-Sadiq Hospital, Marjan Hospital, Al-Hilla Hospital, Childbirth and Children's Hospital, and Mamira plant.The concentration of IBU was conducted utilizing highperformance liquid chromatography (HPLC).The concentration of ibuprofen in the influent wastewater of the plants was 144, 12.57, 10.45, 20.34 and 1096 µg/ l respectively, while revealing effluent concentrations of 132.6, 7.52, 8.05, 11.15 and 945 µg/ l for Al-Sadiq Hospital plant, Marjan Hospital plant, Al-Hilla Hospital plant, Childbirth and Children's Hospital plant, and the Al-Mamira plant respectively.The maximum effluent concentration of IBU was observed at the Mamira plant, exhibiting a removal efficiency of 13.78%, whereas the minimum effluent concentration was recorded at the Childbirth and Children's Hospital plant, which had a removal efficiency of 45.18%.The P-value of 1.025E-06 (less than 0.05) revealed that the influent concentration of ibuprofen exerted a statistically significant impact on the effluent concentration of ibuprofen.