An Insight into Biological and Chemical Technologies for Micropollutant Removal from Wastewater

Abstract

Over the last few decades, the occurrence of micropollutants (MPs) in wastewater has emerged as a challenging task for the scientific community. Biological treatment technologies (BTTs) are most widely used for MPs removal, including activated sludge, constructed wetland, membrane bioreactor (MBR), aerobic bioreactor, anaerobic bioreactor, microalgae bioreactor, fungal bioreactor, trickling filter, rotating biological reactor, nitrification, and biosorption. Results showed that during biological treatment some of the non-biodegradable MPs are not efficiently removed. Chemical treatment technologies (CTTs) including Fenton, ozonation, photolysis, photo-Fenton, photocatalysis, and electro-Fenton process have been widely used. However, the complete mineralization of MPs by CTTs is usually expensive. Therefore, a cost and resource-efficient alternative are to direct biological treatment in combination with a chemical treatment to convert the hazardous pollutants into more biodegradable compounds. This chapter provides an insight into the removal of micropollutants from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) by biological, chemical, and hybrid technologies. Further studies are needed for optimizing these processes, especially in terms of technical and economic perspectives.