M3 PM Wastewater Treatment: Analysis, Fate and Removal of Emerging Contaminants
Monday, 14 November 2005: 1:50 PM - 5:30 PM in Ballroom 3

(PET-1117-542848) Removal of selected emerging contaminants (pharmaceuticals and alkylphenol ethoxylate sufactants) by membrane bioreactors (MBR).

Petrovic, M.¹, Gonzalez, S.¹, Radjenovic, J. ¹, Barcelo, D. ¹, ¹ IIQAB-CSIC, Barcelona, Spain

ABSTRACT- Although adopted as the best available technology conventional biological (activated sludge) treatment permits only partial removal of a wide range of emerging contaminants. Elimination of different classes of emerging contaminants, especially of polar ones, such as , polar pharmaceuticals and polar metabolites of alkylphenol ethoxylate surfactants was found to be rather low and consequently sewage effluents are one of the main sources of these compounds in the environment. Therefore, it has become evident that it is necessary to develop and apply more enhanced and effective technologies for the treatment of wastewaters. In recent years, new technologies are being studied and among them membrane treatment, using membrane bioreactors (MBR) is most frequently considered as the most promising development in microbiological wastewater treatment. In this work, the application of the MBR technology has been explored through the installation of a pilot-scale membrane bioreactor system in a conventional WWTP, which treats mixed domestic, hospital and industrial wastewaters. The elimination of multi-class pharmaceuticals and nonionic surfactants alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEO) and their potentially estrogenic metabolic products, namely alkylphenols (AP) and alkylphenoxy carboxylates (APEC) was evaluated and compared to conventional activated sludge (CAS) system The average removal of alkylphenolic compounds in MBR was constantly higher than 85%, which turned out to be the significant improvement in comparison to CAS treatment. The elimination of pharmaceutical residues also increased, however some of the compounds were found to be recalcitrant and were removed in neither system. In addition, the performances of the lab-scale MBR were compared to those of a full scale MBR used for the treatment of industrial wastewaters from a personal care production plant.

Key words: multi-class pharmaceuticals, alkylphenolic compounds, membrane bioreactor