AI Article Synopsis
- The study aimed to analyze the presence and elimination of 52 organic micropollutants (OMPs), including common pharmaceuticals, during different stages of wastewater treatment in a full-scale plant.
- Primary treatment was largely ineffective for OMP removal (<10%), while secondary biological treatment, particularly a combined anaerobic-anoxic-oxic process followed by a membrane bioreactor, proved highly effective, achieving a 96% removal rate.
- Additional treatments, like powdered activated carbon, helped eliminate over 50% of many OMPs, but metformin remained a challenge; however, a biological activated carbon process successfully removed 90.5% of it, indicating the need for hybrid treatment solutions to better handle OMPs with varying properties
Article Abstract
The goal of this study was to investigate the occurrence and removal of 52 organic micropollutants (OMPs) during each wastewater treatment step in a full-scale wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). Pharmaceuticals such as metformin, acetaminophen, caffeine, ibuprofen, cimetidine and naproxen were found with high average concentrations in the influent. Most OMPs were not affected by the primary treatment (removal <10%), while secondary biological treatment contributed the most to overall removal of the OMPs. Among the three lanes of the secondary treatment of the WWTP, a combined anaerobic-anoxic-oxic process followed by a membrane bioreactor (A2O-MBR) process effectively facilitated removal of the OMPs (96%) using a different redox: a conventional activated sludge (CAS) process exhibited removal of approximately 85% of total concentrations of the OMPs, while a Modified Ludzack-Ettinger (MLE) process achieved approximately 92.1% removal. Removal of more than 50% of the concentrations of 13 targeted OMPs was observed in the secondary effluent (except for metformin showing only 3.8% removal) via adsorption with powdered activated carbon (PAC) as additional tertiary treatment. Metformin, inadequately removed by additional tertiary treatments, was effectively removed by a biological activated carbon (BAC) process, reaching a removal efficiency of 90.5%. To increase the removal of the amounts and types of OMPs with various physico-chemical properties, hybrid processes through a combination of diverse advanced treatment should be tailored to WWTPs.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.132629 | DOI Listing |
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