Contaminants of Emerging Concern Removal in an Effluent of Wastewater Treatment Plant under Biological and Continuous Mode Ultrafiltration Treatment

Abstract

This work presents a case study of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), located in Biscay (Spain), in which the removal of high-occurrence contaminants of emerging concern (CEC) was studied. The existing biological treatment in the WWTP was complemented with a continuous ultrafiltration (c-UF) pilot plant, as a tertiary treatment. Thus, the effect on CEC removal of both treatments could be analyzed globally and after each operation. A total of 39 CEC were monitored, including pharmaceutical products, industrial additives, food additives, herbicides and personal care products. For evaluation of the efficiencies, the removal rates of the biological and of the c-UF treatments, including their variability over a day and a week in relation to the ammonium content, were examined in the influent of the WWTP. In the biological treatment, a wide range of different removal rates was obtained due to the different CEC’s biodegradability and concentration. In UF, lower, but more constant removal rates, were achieved. In addition, the reduction of the general toxicity by the UF treatment in terms of the Microtox® toxicity assay was also evaluated. After UF, all of the samples yielded values of TU50 lower than 1, confirming this result the UF effectiveness for toxicity removal.

The Effect of Mixing Ratios on the Performance of an Integrated Poultry Slaughterhouse Wastewater Treatment Plant for a Recyclable High-Quality Effluent

“…From the 80:20 (defeathering:cooling) ratio, an average concentration of 1.82 mg/dm 3 was achieved, which is still 3.64 times higher than the recommended guideline according to the Kazakhstan drinking water quality standards. In this study, the membrane filtration treatment process was the main unit that can be associated with difficulty in the removal of ammonium; similar challenges of ammonium removal using membrane filtration processes have been observed in some other studies [52]. Although there is no evidence that ammonia is carcinogenic, ammonia has a toxic effect on healthy humans only if the intake becomes higher than the capacity to detoxify [53].…”

Water Reuse Study from Urban WWTPs via c-Ultrafiltration and Ozonation Technologies: Basis for Resilient Cities and Agriculture

“…Although UF technology is highly efficient at removing SS and pathogenic microorganisms, it is important to demonstrate that it is also effective in removing other compounds that could not be detected, either due to their low frequency of appearance or the low concentrations presented, below the limits of detection of the analytical techniques [9]. According to Table 5, it was observed that, in both systems, the toxicity decreased sharply until reaching a value less than 1.…”

“…The difference in performance is due to the changing adsorption capacity of the filter membrane according to the CEC. Ferreiro et al [9] studied the adsorption mechanism that occurred in an ultrafiltration process at certain concentrations of CECs, such as amitriptyline or sulfamethoxazole. According to the adsorption equilibria of such compounds [9], the high concentration of both CECs at the c-UF inlet favours retention during filtration.…”

“…The long-term impacts of CECs are unknown since they can bioaccumulate in aquatic species. Regulatory authorities, such as the European Environmental Agency (EEA)-integrated by 32 Member States and seven cooperating countries-the International Chemical Safety Program (IPCS), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [9], are responsible for developing regulations and directives that improve the protection and sanitary safety of these freshwater resources.…”

Recent Advances in the Rejection of Endocrine-Disrupting Compounds from Water Using Membrane and Membrane Bioreactor Technologies: A Review

“…Moreover, most of the treated potable-water resources may be polluted through deep-well injection of the effluent and surface outflow [ 27 ]. This flaw provides evidence that even drinking water is not free from these recalcitrant contaminants, since some compounds of EDCs, specifically plasticizers and steroidal hormones, were detected in drinking water, surface water, and groundwater (see Table 1) [ 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ].…”