Removal of pharmaceutical compounds commonly-found in wastewater through a hybrid biological and adsorption process

• Published in: Journal of environmental management 2020-06, Vol.263, p.110368-110368, Article 110368
• Main Authors: Ferrer-Polonio, Eva, Fernández-Navarro, Julián, Iborra-Clar, María-Isabel, Alcaina-Miranda, María-Isabel, Mendoza-Roca, José Antonio
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activated carbon; Emerging pollutants; Pharmaceutical compounds; Sequencing bath reactor
• ISSN: 0301-4797; 1095-8630
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.110368

Nowadays, alternative options to conventional wastewater treatment should be studied due to rising concerns emerged by the presence of pharmaceuticals compounds (PhCs) in the aquatic environment. In this work, a combined system including biological treatment by activated sludge plus adsorption with activated carbon is proposed to remove three selected drugs (acetaminophen (ACT), caffeine (CAF) and ibuprofen (IBU)) in a concentration of 2 mg L−1 of each one. For it three sequencing batch reactors (SBR) were operated. SBR-B treated a synthetic wastewater (SWW) without target drugs and SBR-PhC and SBR-PhC + AC operated with SWW doped with the three drugs, adding into SBR-PhC + AC 1.5 g L−1 of a mesoporous granular activated carbon. Results showed that the hybrid system SBR-activated carbon produced an effluent free of PhCs, which in addition had higher quality than that achieved in a conventional activated sludge treatment in terms of lower COD, turbidity and SMP concentrations. On the other hand, five possible routes of removal for target drugs during the biological treatment were studied. Hydrolysis, oxidation and volatilization pathways were negligible after 6 h of reaction time. Adsorption route only was significant for ACT, which was adsorbed completely after 5 h of reaction, while only 1.9% of CAF and 5.6% of IBU were adsorbed. IBU was the least biodegradable compound. •Five routes of CAF, ACT and IBU removal during biological treatment have been studied.•ACT and IBU were those that presented major and minor biodegradation, respectively.•A route was important for ACT. O, H and V routes were negligible for the three drug.•PhCs presence affected the effluent quality.•Hybrid biological/adsorption process remove target drugs and increase effluent quality.