Eliminación de compuestos farmacéuticos y de cuidado personal (CFCPs) en efluentes anaerobios empleando sistemas biológicos de filtración/adsorción

Traballo Fín de Máster en Enxeñaría de Procesos Químicos e Ambientais. Curso 2012-2013El objetivo principal de este Trabajo Fin de Máster es evaluar la eliminación de compuestos farmacéuticos y de cuidado personal (CFCPs) durante el tratamiento de efluentes anaerobios empleando sistemas biológicos de filtración/adsorción. Para la consecución de este objetivo global se han propuesto los siguientes objetivos específicos: 1-Estudiar cómo afecta el tipo de soporte empleado en el lecho (arena o carbón activo granular) al desarrollo de las poblaciones bacterianas y a la adsorción de los compuestos. 2-Evaluar la eliminación de los CFCPs cuando en el lecho solo existe adsorción y cuando se combinan adsorción, absorción y biodegradación. Estudiar la influencia del tiempo de residencia hidráulico (TRH) en la eliminación de los CFCPs durante el tratamiento del agua residual.La presencia de microcontaminates orgánicos en aguas residuales urbanas procedentes del consumo de productos destinados a la higiene y la salud es un tema de preocupación en la actualidad ya que el tratamiento convencional de las aguas residuales no es efectivo en la eliminación de estos compuestos. Para mejorar la calidad de las aguas tratadas y reducir el impacto que pueda generar su vertido sobre el medio ambiente, en las estaciones depuradoras de aguas residuales (EDAR) deben instalarse sistemas de postratamient

Integrating granular activated carbon in the post-treatment of membrane and settler effluents to improve organic micropollutants removal

Granular activated carbon (GAC) is applied as post-treatment technology in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in order to increase the elimination of organic micropollutants (OMPs). However, the efficiency and life-time of GAC depend on several parameters, such as the quality of the effluent to be treated or the type of GAC. In the present paper, two types of GAC, based on bituminous carbon (BC-GAC) and coconut shell (CS-GAC), were assessed from a technical, economic and environmental point of view to further remove OMPs present in two secondary effluents, coming from integrated biological systems with a membrane or a settler, respectively. Although all GAC filters were efficient in removing selected OMPs, the quality of the secondary effluent had a strong influence on the lifespan of adsorbent material and the technical operability of the filtration systems. While GAC filters treating membrane effluent were highly effective to remove recalcitrant compounds, such as carbamazepine and diazepam (>80%), even after 430 d of operation (>30,800 BV), the efficiency of GAC filters treating settler effluent quickly lowered to 50% after 100 d of operation (<7200 BV). Both types of GAC showed similar adsorption capacities and only slight differences were found in terms of costs (2.4 €/kg vs 2.7 €/kg). However, CS-GAC has a lower carbon footprint than BC-GAC, mainly due to the more environmentally friendly production process of CS-GACThis research was supported by the Spanish Government (AEI – Spain) through the projects HOLSIA (CTM2013-46750-R) and COMETT (CTQ2016-80847-R). The authors belong to the Galician Competitive Research Group GRC ED431C2017/29 and to the CRETUS Strategic Partnership (AGRUP2015/02). All these programmes are co-funded by FEDER (EU)S

How should ecohazard of micropollutants in wastewater be gauged? Using bioassays to profile alternative tertiary treatments

The research on emerging pollutants in wastewater has become a worldwide issue of increasing environmental concern, especially considering the growing interest in wastewater reuse. However, the latter implies additional post-treatment after the conventional activated sludge processes, in order to produce a safer effluent. Our work aimed at determining the efficiency of reducing the toxicity associated with organic micropollutants (OMPs) in secondary wastewater effluents, using 3 different post-treatment technologies (granular activated carbon (GAC), sand biofiltration and UV irradiation): in particular, target chemical analysis of the OMPs most commonly founded in wastewater was coupled with effect-based assays (estrogenicity and mutagenicity). While chemical analysis assessed satisfactory performances for all 3 technologies in the abatement of selected OMPs, biological assays evidenced another perspective: both GAC and sand biofilters were significantly able to make the estrogenic load plummet; however, the UV system was ineffective in estrogenicity abatement, and its effluent exhibited also a slight mutagenicity, likely due to photo-transformation by-products. These results indicate that a synergistic combination of chemical analysis and biological assays can drive to a proper gauging of post-treatment technologies, taking into account not only the removal of OMPs, but also their overall toxicityThis work was conceived within a Short Term Scientific Mission (STSM) of the Water2020 Cost Action ES1202: Conceiving Wastewater Treatment in 2020 | Energetic, environmental and economic challenges. Authors from Universidade de Santiago de Compostela belong to the Galician Competitive Research Group GRC 2013-032 and to the CRETUS Strategic Partnership (AGRUP2015/02). All these programmes are co-funded by FEDER (UE)S