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

[EN] 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 mute 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.This work was supported by Spanish grants AICO/2018/292 of the Generalitat Valenciana.Ferrer-Polonio, E.; Fernández-Navarro, J.; Iborra-Clar, MI.; Alcaina-Miranda, MI.; Mendoza Roca, JA. (2020). Removal of pharmaceutical compounds commonly-found in wastewater through a hybrid biological and adsorption process. Journal of Environmental Management. 263:1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.110368S18263Al-Khazrajy, O. S. A., & Boxall, A. B. A. (2016). Impacts of compound properties and sediment characteristics on the sorption behaviour of pharmaceuticals in aquatic systems. 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Assessment of the optimized treatment of indigo-polluted industrial textile wastewater by a sequential electrocoagulation-activated carbon adsorption process

Wastewater collected from a local jean manufacturing plant was treated using an electrocoagulation process (EC) coupled with activated carbon (AC) adsorption. The process variables were optimized using multivariate regression coupled with nonlinear programming with nonlinear restrictions to achieve the lowest possible cost while keeping a high enough degradation rate for chemical oxygen demand (COD), color, and turbidity to fulfill the Colombian environmental regulation requirements. Under optimal conditions (pH = 5.4, s =2 mS/cm, j =14 mA/cm2, and t = 11 min) color, COD, and TOC removals of 95%, 63%, and 51%, respectively, were achieved. The biodegradability index also increased from 0.13 to 0.29, whereas toxicity tests showed a remaining toxicity of 45%. A kinetic study was conducted for the EC process. The activated carbon (AC) adsorption process was successfully used to completely remove toxicity, while further increasing color, COD, and TOC removals to 96%, 72%, and 61%, respectively. The conditions for the AC adsorption process (20 g/L of AC and 1 h) were determined by experimental adsorption isotherms and kinetic studies. The optimized EC/AC process led to an effluent satisfying the Colombian regulations and seems technologically viable with lower costs than other similar process that were reported in previous works. © 2020 Elsevier Lt

Assessment of the optimized treatment of indigo-polluted industrial textile wastewater by a sequential electrocoagulation-activated carbon adsorption process

Wastewater collected from a local jean manufacturing plant was treated using an electrocoagulation process (EC) coupled with activated carbon (AC) adsorption. The process variables were optimized using multivariate regression coupled with nonlinear programming with nonlinear restrictions to achieve the lowest possible cost while keeping a high enough degradation rate for chemical oxygen demand (COD), color, and turbidity to fulfill the Colombian environmental regulation requirements. Under optimal conditions (pH = 5.4, s =2 mS/cm, j =14 mA/cm2, and t = 11 min) color, COD, and TOC removals of 95%, 63%, and 51%, respectively, were achieved. The biodegradability index also increased from 0.13 to 0.29, whereas toxicity tests showed a remaining toxicity of 45%. A kinetic study was conducted for the EC process. The activated carbon (AC) adsorption process was successfully used to completely remove toxicity, while further increasing color, COD, and TOC removals to 96%, 72%, and 61%, respectively. The conditions for the AC adsorption process (20 g/L of AC and 1 h) were determined by experimental adsorption isotherms and kinetic studies. The optimized EC/AC process led to an effluent satisfying the Colombian regulations and seems technologically viable with lower costs than other similar process that were reported in previous works. © 2020 Elsevier Lt

Degradación de Colorante Amarillo 12 de Aguas Residuales Industriales utilizando Hierro Cero Valente, Peróxido de Hidrógeno y Radiación Ultravioleta

The Fenton heterogeneous process in a fluidized bed reactor using Zero Valent Iron (ZVI), in the metallic state, for the treatment of textile wastewater has been used an analyzed. The aim of this work was to optimize the following operating parameters: initial dye concentration, H2O2 concentration, pH, amount of ZVI, and UV radiation, for the removal of dye and organic matter. At first, a fractional factorial experimental design allows defining the most influential factors. After that, they were optimized using the Response Surface Methodology coupled to the Box-Behnken experimental design. The optimal conditions were found to be as follows: initial dye concentration, 881 mg/L; pH 5; ZVI concentration, 5,31 g/L; H2O2 concentration, 0,86 mL/L. At these conditions, the degradation kinetics was performed, reaching 100% and 80,83% of dye and chemical oxygen demand respectively, in 150 minutes of reaction

Electrochemical Degradation of Acid Yellow 23 by Anodic OxidationOptimization of Operating Parameters

In this study, the electrochemical oxidation (EO) process was implemented and optimized to effectively decolorize and degrade wastewater containing Acid Yellow 23 (Y23). The experiments were carried out in a laboratory-scale batch cell reactor, with monopolar configuration of electrodes, made of graphite (anode) and titanium (cathode). The response surface methodology (RSM), coupled with Box-Behnken experimental design (BBD), was used to evaluate the single and interactive effects of different variables of the EO process on (1)degradation percentages of both chemical oxygen demand (%DCOD) and color (%DC) and (2)energy consumption (EC). Thus, the following experimental factors were considered: initial dye concentration (40-100mg/L), current density (10-20mA/cm2), and conductivity (1,000-4,000S/cm). Thus, the subsequent conditions were found to be optimal for decolorization and degradation of Y23: initial dye concentration = 100mg/L; current density = 20mA/cm2; and conductivity = 4,000S/cm. At these conditions, the EO process allowed to reach approximately 99% of color degradation and 76% of COD degradation. Because NaCl was used as an electrolyte, chorine formation was monitored, and its effect on %DC and %DCOD was also evaluated