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Effectiveness of tertiary treatment processes in removing different classes of emerging contaminants from domestic wastewater

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Abstract

In this work, 38 different organic emerging contaminants (ECs), belonging to various chemical classes such as pharmaceuticals (PhCs), endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), benzotriazoles (BTRs), benzothiazoles (BTHs), and perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), were initially identified and quantified in the biologically treated wastewater collected from Athens’ (Greece) Sewage Treatment Plant (STP). Processes already used in existing STPs such as microfiltration (MF), nanofiltration (NF), ultrafiltration (UF), UV radiation, and powdered activated carbon (PAC) were assessed for ECs’ removal, under the conditions that represent their actual application for disinfection or advanced wastewater treatment. The results indicated that MF removed only one out of the 38 ECs and hence it was selected as pretreatment step for the other processes. UV radiation in the studied conditions showed low to moderate removal for 5 out of the 38 ECs. NF showed better results than UF due to the smaller pore sizes of the filtration system. However, this enhancement was observed mainly for 8 compounds originating from the classes of PhCs and PFCs, while the removal of EDCs was not statistically significant. Among the various studied technologies, PAC stands out due to its capability to sufficiently remove most ECs. In particular, removal rates higher than 70% were observed for 9 compounds, 22 were partially removed, while 7 demonstrated low removal rates. Based on our screening experiments, future research should focus on scaling-up PAC in actual conditions, combining PAC with other processes, and conduct a complete economic and environmental assessment of the treatment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environment, University of the Aegean, Mytilene, 81100, Greece

    Olga S. Arvaniti, Vasilios G. Samaras, Georgia Gatidou & Athanasios S. Stasinakis

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Patras, Patras, 26504, Greece

    Olga S. Arvaniti

  3. Department of Agricultural Development, Agrofood and Management of Natural Resources, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Psachna, 34400, Greece

    Olga S. Arvaniti & Niki C. Maragou

  4. Department of Chemistry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, 15771, Greece

    Marilena E. Dasenaki & Nikolaos S. Thomaidis

  5. Department of Chemistry, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, NO-7491, Norway

    Alexandros G. Asimakopoulos

  6. Core Labs, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia

    Vasilios G. Samaras

  7. Sanitary Engineering Laboratory, Department of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Athens, 15780, Greece

    Korina Antoniou, Daniel Mamais & Constantinos Noutsopoulos

  8. Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Western Macedonia, Kozani, 50132, Greece

    Zacharias Frontistis

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  1. Olga S. Arvaniti
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  2. Marilena E. Dasenaki
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  3. Alexandros G. Asimakopoulos
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  6. Korina Antoniou
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  7. Georgia Gatidou
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  9. Constantinos Noutsopoulos
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  11. Nikolaos S. Thomaidis
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  12. Athanasios S. Stasinakis
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Correspondence to Athanasios S. Stasinakis.

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Highlights

• Different advanced treatment processes were tested for ECs removal from wastewater.

• UV radiation showed low to moderate removal for 5 of the 38 micropollutants.

• Among tested membrane processes, nanofiltration showed the better performance.

• The use of PAC achieved high or partially removal for 31 out of the 38 compounds.

• The environmental and economical evaluation of a pilot-scale PAC unit is suggested.

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Arvaniti, O.S., Dasenaki, M.E., Asimakopoulos, A.G. et al. Effectiveness of tertiary treatment processes in removing different classes of emerging contaminants from domestic wastewater. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng. 16, 148 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-022-1583-y

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