Abstract
Organic emerging micropollutants are persistent during the biological process used in treatment plants and have the tendency to accumulate in the sludge. Since a common method of final sludge disposal is the land application, there are potential risks associated with the presence of contaminants within the sludge. In this work, the removal efficiency of endocrine-disrupting chemicals, namely bisphenol A, nonylphenol and triclosan from sludge was investigated using ozonation and electrooxidation using boron-doped diamond electrodes. Both procedures were studied to determine the optimal conditions (pH, current density and ozone flow) for removing these chemicals in an hour. With the obtained conditions, a coupled system ozonation–electrooxidation was used with the goal to have better pollutant elimination. Results indicate that these compounds could be effectively removed by the coupled system; the diminutions were Bisphenol A 86%, nonylphenol 68% and triclosan 67%. Also improvements in the quality of aqueous phase were obtained, and for instance, the chemical oxygen demand, color and turbidity, were abated in 62, 61 and 66%, respectively. Moreover, an additional advantage of the coupled system is the absence of any secondary pollution.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anglada JM, Torrent-Sucarrat M, Ruiz-Lopez MF, Martins-Costa M (2012) Is the HO4 − anion a key species in the aqueous-phase decomposition of ozone? Chem Eur J 18(42):13435–13445
APHA-AWWA-WPCF (1989) Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater, 17th edn. American Public Health Association, Washington, DC
Arrebola JP, Fernández MF, Molia-Molina JM, Freire C, Fernández M, Amaya E, Ramos R, Navea N, Sáenz JM, Ocón O, Calvente I, Olea N (2010) Exposición humana a compuestos con actividad disruptora endocrina en la población española. Human Exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals in the Spanish population. Ars Pharm 51(3):811–822
Babuponnusami A, Muthukumar K (2012) Advanced oxidation of phenol: a comparison between Fenton, electro-Fenton, sono-electro-Fenton and photo-electro-Fenton processes. Chem Eng J 183:1–9
Bernal-Martínez LA, Barrera-Díaz C, Solís-Morelos C, Natividad R (2010) Synergy of electrochemical and ozonation processes in industrial wastewater treatment. Chem Eng J 165(1):71–77
Clarke BO, Smith SR (2011) Review of ‘emerging’organic contaminants in biosolids and assessment of international research priorities for the agricultural use of biosolids. Environ Int 37(1):226–247
Comninellis C, Chen G (eds) (2010) Electrochemistry for the environment. Springer, New York
Curteanu S, Godini K, Piuleac CG, Azarian G, Rahmani AR, Butnariu C (2014) Electro-oxidation method applied for activated sludge treatment: experiment and simulation based on supervised machine learning methods. Ind Eng Chem Res 53(12):4902–4912
Dinwiddie MT, Terry PD, Chen J (2014) Recent evidence regarding triclosan and cancer risk. Int J Environ Res Public Health 11(2):2209–2217
Durán-Alvarez JC, Becerril-Bravo E, Castro VS, Jiménez B, Gibson R (2009) The analysis of a group of acidic pharmaceuticals, carbamazepine, and potential endocrine disrupting compounds in wastewater irrigated soils by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Talanta 78(3):1159–1166
El-Ghenymy A, Cabot PL, Centellas F, Garrido JA, Rodríguez RM, Arias C, Brillas E (2013) Electrochemical incineration of the antimicrobial sulfamethazine at a boron-doped diamond anode. Electrochim Acta 90:254–264
Grover DP, Balaam J, Pacitto S, Readman JW, White S, Zhou JL (2011) Endocrine disrupting activities in sewage effluent and river water determined by chemical analysis and in vitro assay in the context of granular activated carbon upgrade. Chemosphere 84(10):1512–1520
Kelessidis A, Stasinakis AS (2012) Comparative study of the methods used for treatment and final disposal of sewage sludge in European countries. Waste Manag 32(6):1186–1195
Khalil N, Ebert JR, Wang L, Belcher S, Lee M, Czerwinski SA, Kannan K (2014) Bisphenol A and cardiometabolic risk factors in obese children. Sci Total Environ 470:726–732
Klavarioti M, Mantzavinos D, Kassinos D (2009) Removal of residual pharmaceuticals from aqueous systems by advanced oxidation processes. Environ Int 35(2):402–410
LeBlanc RJ, Matthews P, Richard R P (eds) (2009) Global atlas of excreta, wastewater sludge, and biosolids management: moving forward the sustainable and welcome uses of a global resource. Un-habitat. https://esa.un.org/iys/docs/san_lib_docs/habitat2008.pdf. Accessed 17 Nov 2016
Ning B, Graham NJ, Zhang Y (2007) Degradation of octylphenol and nonylphenol by ozone-part I: direct reaction. Chemosphere 68(6):1163–1172
Qiang Z, Nie Y, Ben W, Qu J, Zhang H (2013) Degradation of endocrine-disrupting chemicals during activated sludge reduction by ozone. Chemosphere 91(3):366–373
Rivera-Utrilla J, Sánchez-Polo M, Ferro-García MA, Prados-Joya G, Ocampo-Pérez R (2013) Pharmaceuticals as emerging contaminants and their removal from water. A review. Chemosphere 93(7):1268–1287
Samaras P, Papadimitriou CA, Haritou I, Zouboulis AI (2008) Investigation of sewage sludge stabilization potential by the addition of fly ash and lime. J Hazard Mater 154(1):1052–1059
Samaras VG, Stasinakis AS, Thomaidis NS, Mamais D, Lekkas TD (2014) Fate of selected emerging micropollutants during mesophilic, thermophilic and temperature co-phased anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge. Bioresour Technol 162:365–372
Schiffer C, Müller A, Egeberg DL, Alvarez L, Brenker C, Rehfeld A, Frederiksen H, Wäschle B, Benjamin-Kaupp U, Balbach M, Wachten D, Skakkebaek NE, Almstrup K, Strünker T (2014) Direct action of endocrine disrupting chemicals on human sperm. EMBO Rep 15(7):758–765
SEMARNAT (2008) Programa Nacional para la Prevención y Gestión Integral de los Residuos 2009–2012. http://www.inecc.gob.mx/descargas/pnpgir_ver%20_int.pdf. Accessed 17 Nov 2016
Singh RP, Agrawal M (2008) Potential benefits and risks of land application of sewage sludge. Waste Manag 28(2):347–358
Tas DO (2010) Respirometric assessment of aerobic sludge stabilization. Bioresour Technol 101(8):2592–2599
Tyagi VK, Lo SL, Appels L, Dewil R (2014) Ultrasonic treatment of waste sludge: a review on mechanisms and applications. Crit Rev Environ Sci Technol 44(11):1220–1288
Umar M, Roddick F, Fan L, Aziz HA (2013) Application of ozone for the removal of bisphenol A from water and wastewater—a review. Chemosphere 90(8):2197–2207
Venkatesan AK, Done HY, Halden RU (2014) United States National Sewage Sludge Repository at Arizona State University—a new resource and research tool for environmental scientists, engineers, and epidemiologists. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22(3):1577–1586
Werle S, Wilk RK (2010) A review of methods for the thermal utilization of sewage sludge: the polish perspective. Renew Energy 35(9):1914–1919
Wu Q, Shi H, Adams CD, Timmons T, Ma Y (2012) Oxidative removal of selected endocrine-disruptors and pharmaceuticals in drinking water treatment systems, and identification of degradation products of triclosan. Sci Total Environ 439:18–25
Zuloaga O, Navarro P, Bizkarguenaga E, Iparraguirre A, Vallejo A, Olivares M, Prieto A (2012) Overview of extraction, clean-up and detection techniques for the determination of organic pollutants in sewage sludge: a review. Anal Chim Acta 736:7–29
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support from Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT) trough the project 153828.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Editorial responsibility: M. Abbaspour.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
de Leon-Condes, C., Barrera-Díaz, C., Barrios, J. et al. A coupled ozonation–electrooxidation treatment for removal of bisphenol A, nonylphenol and triclosan from wastewater sludge. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 14, 707–716 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-016-1178-x
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-016-1178-x