Exclusion of Estrogenic and Androgenic Steroid Hormones from Municipal Membrane Bioreactor Wastewater Using UF/NF/RO Membranes for Water Reuse Application

Abstract

In the context of water scarcity, domestic secondary effluent reuse may be an option as a reliable source for alleviating acute water shortage. The increasing risks linked with the presence of natural steroid hormones and many emerging anthropogenic micropollutants (MPs) passing through municipal wastewater treatment works (MWWTWs) are of concern for their endocrine-disrupting activities. In this study, domestic wastewater treated by a full-scale membrane bioreactor (MBR) at an MWWTW in the Western Cape Province, South Africa, was used directly as the influent to a reverse osmosis (RO) pilot plant for the removal of selected natural steroid hormones 17β-estradiol (E2) and testosterone (T) as a potential indirect water recycling application. Estrogenicity and androgenicity were assessed using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) and the recombinant yeast estrogen receptor binding assays (YES). The influent pH and flux did not influence the rejection of E2 and T, which was most likely due to adsorption, size exclusion, and diffusion simultaneously. RO and nanofiltration (NF) exhibited excellent removal rates (>95%) for E2 and T. All the E2 effluent samples with MBR/ultrafiltration (UF), MBR/NF, and MBR/RO were lower than the US EPA and WHO trigger value of 0.7 ng/L, as well as the predicted no-effect concentration (PNEC) values for fish (1 ng E2/L).

The Removal of Selected Inorganics from Municipal Membrane Bioreactor Wastewater Using UF/NF/RO Membranes for Water Reuse Application: A Pilot-Scale Study

“…The mechanisms that can be attributed to the rejection of ionic species in the water are size exclusion, charge, and ionic electrostatic interactions of the ions with the surface of the membrane. It is reported that monovalent ions in the feed water can generally pass through the membrane more easily than divalent ions due to size exclusion [ 18 ]. The UF and NF membranes have similar separation characteristics; however, the membrane parameters are quite different.…”

Nanofiber-Based Face Masks and Respirators as COVID-19 Protection: A Review

“…Air pollutants of ambient (outdoor) areas are a combination of thousands of components. From a health viewpoint, PM and pollutants such as ozone (O 3 ), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfadiazine, and sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) are the most important among them [ 16 , 17 , 18 ].…”

Experimental Design as a Tool for Optimizing and Predicting the Nanofiltration Performance by Treating Antibiotic-Containing Wastewater

“…As reported in the literature [43,44], pharmaceutical compounds (e.g., antibiotics) can interact with the functional groups present on organic matter forming macromolecular complexes. In turn, these increase the effect of steric hindrance and the adsorption of pharmaceutical compounds on the membrane surface or inside its pores caused by the hydrophobicity of organic matter [10], increasing the rejection and reducing the permeate flux. In addition, the higher rejection presented by NF270 treating the urban wastewater could be associated with the inorganic background (wastewater conductivity approximately 430 µS cm −1 ), once it has already been noticed [45] that the ion adsorption may narrow the NF membrane pores.…”

“…In turn, these have conventional treatment processes, which are inefficient in removing antibiotics and other micropollutants [2][3][4]; thus, the discharged wastewater ends up contaminating the different ecosystems [5]. For this reason, UWWTPs are considered as one of the main sources of antibiotic release into the environment [6], discharging them in concentrations ranging from ng L −1 to µg L −1 [7][8][9][10]. Likewise, wastewater from the pharmaceutical industry is another important source of contamination, generally containing pharmaceuticals concentration in the range of mg L −1 [11,12], but that may reach a magnitude of g L −1 [13].…”