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A new decentralized biological treatment process based on activated carbon targeting organic micropollutant removal from hospital wastewaters

  • Environmental and Sustainable Chemical Engineering
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Abstract

Although hospital wastewaters (HWWs) are usually discharged in urban sewage systems, their separate treatment has several benefits, such as the specific treatment of potential toxics as well as avoidance of further dilutions. In this work, an integrated industrial pilot plant (2200 L) corresponding to the technology SeMPAC® is proposed and validated for such purpose. The process consists of a sequential batch reactor (SBR) connected to an external submerged microfiltration membrane, in which powdered activated carbon (PAC) is directly added into the biological reactor to enhance the removal of the organic micropollutants (OMPs). The combination of different redox conditions in the SBR, as well as the operation at long sludge retention times (SRTs) and high biomass concentrations favored OMP biotransformation in the SBR, being their final removal efficiencies enhanced clearly after PAC addition, especially for the recalcitrant compounds. A periodical renewal of the adsorbent is necessary to overcome its gradual saturation. The main operational conditions were influenced by (i) the recalcitrant OMP carbamazepine, which defines the PAC dosage; (ii) the easily degradable OMP ibuprofen, which can be used to optimize the duration of the aerobic cycle; and (iii) the denitrification efficiency, which defines the correct time length of the anoxic period.

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Acknowledgments

The authors belong to the Galician Competitive Research Group GRC2013-032 and to the CRETUS Strategic Partnership (AGRUP2015/02). All these programs and project are co-funded by FEDER (UE). The support of Suez to this technology, through its licensing, is acknowledged.

Funding

This research was supported by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (AEI) through the Project COMETT (CTQ2016-80847-R).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, University of Santiago de Compostela, E-15782, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    Teresa Alvarino, Elena García-Sandá, Juan Lema, Francisco Omil & Sonia Suárez

  2. Water Technological Center (Cetaqua), Ctra. d’Esplugues, 75, E-08940, Cornellà de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain

    Teresa Alvarino

  3. Galician Water Research Center Foundation (Cetaqua), Emprendia Building, University of Santiago de Compostela, Campus Vida, E-15782, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    Isabel Gutiérrez-Prada

Authors
  1. Teresa Alvarino
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  2. Elena García-Sandá
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  3. Isabel Gutiérrez-Prada
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  4. Juan Lema
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  5. Francisco Omil
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  6. Sonia Suárez
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Correspondence to Teresa Alvarino.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Alvarino, T., García-Sandá, E., Gutiérrez-Prada, I. et al. A new decentralized biological treatment process based on activated carbon targeting organic micropollutant removal from hospital wastewaters. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 1214–1223 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2670-2

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