Bisphenol A removal by a membrane bioreactor

Abstract

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are potentially harmful chemicals during wastewater reclamation. Bisphenol A (BPA) is a typical EDC, and its removal using a submerged membrane bioreactor (MBR) was investigated. For comparison, a conventional activated sludge reactor (CASR) was simultaneously tested using the same BPA sludge loadings as the MBR. The results showed that MBR could remove BPA a little more effectively than CASR, despite changes in sludge loadings ranging from 0.046 to 10.2 g kg −1 d −1. However, MBR could bear much higher volume loadings than CASR and still achieve the same BPA removal efficiencies. In MBR, HRT did not obviously influence the removal of BPA. The results also showed that the contributions of sludge adsorption to BPA removal were quite low in both reactors. In addition, one metabolite of BPA biodegradation, 4-hydroxy-acetophenone, was detected. These results suggested that biodegradation dominated the BPA removal process.