Treatment technologies for emerging contaminants in wastewater treatment plants: A review

Rout, Prangya Ranjan; Zhang, Tian C.; Bhunia, Puspendu; Surampalli, Rao Y.

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.141990

Cited by 493 publications

(219 citation statements)

References 95 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

212

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Over the last decade, different classes of ECs have been widely detected in treated wastewater, drinking water, surface water bodies, groundwater, soil and sludge [19][20][21][22][23]. ECs enter the aquatic and soil environments through diversified sources including domestic and industrial wastewater, hospital, livestock farming and agricultural activities [24]. WWTPs are considered as one of the main routes for the introduction of ECs into the environment, via either treated wastewater disposal or by the disposal or reuse of the sewage sludge in landfills and agriculture [24][25][26].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fate of Emerging Contaminants in High-Rate Activated Sludge Systems

Koumaki

Noutsopoulos

Mamais

et al. 2021

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

High-rate activated sludge (HRAS) systems are designed to shift the energy-intensive processes to energy-saving and sustainable technologies for wastewater treatment. The high food-to-microorganism (F/M) ratios and low solid retention times (SRTs) and hydraulic retention times (HRTs) applied in HRAS systems result in the maximization of organic matter diversion to the sludge which can produce large amounts of biogas during anaerobic digestion, thus moving toward energy-neutral (or positive) treatment processes. However, in addition to the energy optimization, the removal of emerging contaminants (ECs) is the new challenge in wastewater treatment. In the context of this study, the removal efficiencies and the fates of selected ECs (three endocrine disruptors (endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs))—nonylphenol, bisphenol A and triclosan, and four pharmaceuticals (PhACs)—ibuprofen, naproxen, diclofenac and ketoprofen) in HRAS systems have been studied. According to the results, EDCs occurred in raw wastewater and secondary sludge at higher concentrations compared to PhACs. In HRAS operating schemes, all compounds were poorly (<40%) to moderately (<60%) removed. Regarding removal mechanisms, biotransformation was found to be the dominant process for PhACs, while for EDCs sorption onto sludge is the most significant removal mechanism affecting their fates and their presence in excess sludge.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fate of Emerging Contaminants in High-Rate Activated Sludge Systems

Koumaki

Noutsopoulos

Mamais

et al. 2021

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Conventional wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are not entirely effective in the removal of EPs from wastewater (WW) since they were conceptually designed for the removal of macropollutants such as nutrients, suspended solids, pathogenic microorganisms and trace elements. Therefore, EPs such as pharmaceuticals and endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) may go through the treatment system unchanged or are only partially removed, leading to their detection in WW-receiving water bodies and WWTP discharges in concentrations ranging from ng/L to mg/L [4][5][6][7][8]. EDCs may lead to the modification of the natural function of the endocrine system in wildlife by (i) blocking or copying the normal effect of hormones; (ii) affecting their synthesis or metabolism; and (iii) changing hormone receptor levels [8][9][10][11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, EPs such as pharmaceuticals and endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) may go through the treatment system unchanged or are only partially removed, leading to their detection in WW-receiving water bodies and WWTP discharges in concentrations ranging from ng/L to mg/L [4][5][6][7][8]. EDCs may lead to the modification of the natural function of the endocrine system in wildlife by (i) blocking or copying the normal effect of hormones; (ii) affecting their synthesis or metabolism; and (iii) changing hormone receptor levels [8][9][10][11]. Among EDCs, estrogens such as 17β-estradiol (E2) and 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2) have often been indicated as particularly problematic compounds with high associated risks [12][13][14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several technical solutions for EP removal have previously been developed that allow for their integration with existing treatment processes in an expedient way [7,19]. However, most of the methods are not techno-economically viable for large-scale implementation, and thus, comprehensive research is necessary to develop suitable, low cost, eco-friendly and efficient technologies to remove different kinds of EPs from WW [8,[19][20][21][22]. The adsorption process with activated carbon (AC) is considered by many authors to be one of the most promising treatment processes with high EP removal capacity, mainly because (i) it is simple to design and operate; (ii) it has a low investment cost; (iii) it allows reuse and regeneration; and (iv) it does not generate toxic by-products [8,19,[21][22][23][24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, most of the methods are not techno-economically viable for large-scale implementation, and thus, comprehensive research is necessary to develop suitable, low cost, eco-friendly and efficient technologies to remove different kinds of EPs from WW [8,[19][20][21][22]. The adsorption process with activated carbon (AC) is considered by many authors to be one of the most promising treatment processes with high EP removal capacity, mainly because (i) it is simple to design and operate; (ii) it has a low investment cost; (iii) it allows reuse and regeneration; and (iv) it does not generate toxic by-products [8,19,[21][22][23][24]. Several studies have also already demonstrated that pure AC is able to effectively remove and lower the toxicity of E2 and EE2 in distilled water, drinking water and WW [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Study of the Potential of Water Treatment Sludges in the Removal of Emerging Pollutants

Dias¹,

Sousa²,

Bernardo

et al. 2021

Molecules

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Presently, water quantity and quality problems persist both in developed and developing countries, and concerns have been raised about the presence of emerging pollutants (EPs) in water. The circular economy provides ways of achieving sustainable resource management that can be implemented in the water sector, such as the reuse of drinking water treatment sludges (WTSs). This study evaluated the potential of WTS containing a high concentration of activated carbon for the removal of two EPs: the steroid hormones 17β-estradiol (E2) and 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2). To this end, WTSs from two Portuguese water treatment plants (WTPs) were characterised and tested for their hormone adsorbance potential. Both WTSs showed a promising adsorption potential for the two hormones studied due to their textural and chemical properties. For WTS1, the final concentration for both hormones was lower than the limit of quantification (LOQ). As for WTS2, the results for E2 removal were similar to WTS1, although for EE2, the removal efficiency was lower (around 50%). The overall results indicate that this method may lead to new ways of using this erstwhile residue as a possible adsorbent material for the removal of several EPs present in wastewaters or other matrixes, and as such contributing to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets.

show abstract

Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry in Environmental Analysis

Mattarozzi

Careri

2023

Encyclopedia of Analytical Chemistry

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Liquid chromatography‐mass spectrometry (LC‐MS) has expanded the analytical framework for the analysis of polar organic contaminants in complex matrices primarily through advances in high‐resolution mass spectrometry, ion mobility spectrometry, evolving repository databases, and data mining software. Over the last 10 years, the analytical trends toward a comprehensive characterization of emerging environmental contaminants along with their degradation and transformation products have driven the move from target analysis of few tens of compounds to wide‐scope target screening, as well as the development of strategies aimed at suspect screening of ‘known unknowns’ and the more challenging nontarget analysis for the identification of ‘unknown unknowns’. In this context, there is also an urgent need to give objective and unambiguous evidence of the confidence level of identification from a large list of tentatively identified substances, as well as to automate the evaluation process toward a more reproducible and harmonized approach. This article represents a third edition of a previous manuscript by Mattarozzi and Careri, (1) which was updated to take into account the huge progress in MS instrumentation and related methodologies and also advances in environmental analytical chemistry. In this article, among the environmental applications of LC‐MS, current and innovative approaches for the analysis of selected classes of emerging pollutants, such as micro‐ and nanoplastics, per‐ and poly‐fluoroalkyl substances, and transformation products in environmental samples are discussed, attempting to have a global coverage on the most recent research studies regarding the development of methodologies for the contaminants of high concern for the environment.

show abstract

Treatment technologies for emerging contaminants in wastewater treatment plants: A review

Cited by 493 publications

References 95 publications

Fate of Emerging Contaminants in High-Rate Activated Sludge Systems

Fate of Emerging Contaminants in High-Rate Activated Sludge Systems

Study of the Potential of Water Treatment Sludges in the Removal of Emerging Pollutants

Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry in Environmental Analysis

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About