Development of an Electrochemical Ceramic Membrane Bioreactor for the Removal of PPCPs from Wastewater

Kangquan Qi,Qiang Li,Ruobin Dai,Miaoju Lai,Mei Chen,Zhiwei Wang

doi:10.3390/w12061838

Abstract

The removal of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) from water and wastewater is of great significance for eco-system safety. In this study, an electrochemical ceramic membrane bioreactor (ECMBR) was developed for removing seven groups (24 kinds in total) of PPCPs from real wastewater. In the presence of an electric field (2 V/cm), the ECMBR could enhance the removal efficiencies for most targeted PPCPs without having adverse impacts on conventional pollutant removal and membrane filtration. The ECMBR achieved higher removal efficiencies for fluoroquinolones (82.8%), β-blockers (24.6%), and sulfonamides (41.0%) compared to the control (CMBR) (52.9%, 4.6%, and 36.4%). For trimethoprim, ECMBR also significantly increased the removal to 66.5% compared to 15.6% in CMBR. Furthermore, the exertion of an electric field did not cause significant changes in microbial communities, suggesting that the enhanced removal of PPCPs should be attributed to the electrochemical oxidation of the built-in electrodes in the ECMBR.

Highlights

Our results demonstrate that the electrochemical ceramic membrane bioreactor (ECMBR) has a great potential to be used for pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) removal from water and wastewater
As shown in the Scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of the Ti/SnO2 -Sb-La electrode (Figure 2A), the pre-treated titanium mesh was uniformly covered by an SnO2 -Sb-La layer
energy dispersive mapping (EDS) mapping (Figure 2B) indicates that Sn, Sb, and La elements were present on the electrode surface, confirming the successful coating of the

Summary

Introduction

The large quantity of consumed pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) due to the growth of the world’s population, the rapid progress of urbanization, and the outbreak of infectious diseases [1,2,3] will inevitably lead to the occurrence of them in water and wastewater [4,5,6,7]. Processes, are not designed for micropollutant removal and could not achieve an efficient removal of PPCPs [10,11]. Membrane bioreactors (MBR), combining membrane separation with biological treatment technology, could enhance PPCP removal due to their high biomass concentration and large sludge retention time [12,13]. The development of alternative technology is needed for achieving a more efficient removal of PPCPs

Methods

Results

Conclusion