Use of activated carbon for the removal of pharmaceutical and personal care micropollutants in biological reactors

作者：Serrano Denisse^*; Suarez Sonia; Lema Juan M; Omil Francisco

来源：Afinidad, 2013, 70(563): 175-182.

• Adsorption
• Activated Carbon
• Recalcitrant Compound
• Membrane
• Sequencing Batch Bioreactor with Organic Micropollutants

The use of adsorbents such as activated carbon directly in conventional treatment processes appears to be an attractive alternative to enhance the removal of organic Micropollutants present in urban wastewaters, especially those with most recalcitrant behavior. This work is focused on the use of activated carbon directly in the aeration tanks of conventional activated sludge reactors, as well as other more innovative configurations such as sequential membrane batch reactors, in order to enhance the removal of these emerging pollutants. The results indicate that this strategy allows the enhancement in the removal of the most recalcitrant micropollutants (low biodegradability), due to their interaction with the activated carbon. According to the results obtained in combined systems for a selected group of pharmaceutical and personal care compounds studied, three types of behavior were observed: i) compounds which are only removed due to the presence of activated carbon (carbamazepine, trimet-prim, roxitromicin, eritromicin and fluoxetine), with very high removal efficiencies being obtained (97-99%); ii) substances like ibuprofen and naproxen, with high removal efficiencies (>90%), but with no effect caused by the presence of activated carbon due to their high biodegradability and low sorption potential; iii) lipophilic compounds with low affinity to the adsorbent and intermediate biodegradability such as musk fragrances (tonalide, celestolide and galaxolide), for which the presence of activated carbon causes no significant enhancement on their removal.

• 出版日期2013-9