Abstract
In the context of water scarcity, domestic secondary effluent reuse may be an option as a reliable source for alleviating acute water shortage. The increasing risks linked with the presence of natural steroid hormones and many emerging anthropogenic micropollutants (MPs) passing through municipal wastewater treatment works (MWWTWs) are of concern for their endocrine-disrupting activities. In this study, domestic wastewater treated by a full-scale membrane bioreactor (MBR) at an MWWTW in the Western Cape Province, South Africa, was used directly as the influent to a reverse osmosis (RO) pilot plant for the removal of selected natural steroid hormones 17β-estradiol (E2) and testosterone (T) as a potential indirect water recycling application. Estrogenicity and androgenicity were assessed using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) and the recombinant yeast estrogen receptor binding assays (YES). The influent pH and flux did not influence the rejection of E2 and T, which was most likely due to adsorption, size exclusion, and diffusion simultaneously. RO and nanofiltration (NF) exhibited excellent removal rates (>95%) for E2 and T. All the E2 effluent samples with MBR/ultrafiltration (UF), MBR/NF, and MBR/RO were lower than the US EPA and WHO trigger value of 0.7 ng/L, as well as the predicted no-effect concentration (PNEC) values for fish (1 ng E2/L).
Highlights
The growing fear of a shortage of water resources is becoming an important topic as a severe paucity of water has been seen all over the globe
This study aimed to demonstrate the complementarities of combining a reverse osmosis (RO) pilot plant with a full-scale membrane bioreactor (MBR) at a municipal wastewater treatment works (MWWTWs) while investigating the concentration and removal efficiencies of an estrogen (17β-estradiol) and an androgen steroid hormone, detected in the influent and effluents with UF, NF, and RO membranes for potential indirect potable water reuse
Regardless of their high removal rates, T concentrations the limit of detection (LOD). These results show that several molecules of T managed to penetrate exceeded the limit of detection (LOD). These results show that several molecules of T managed to the UF, NF, and RO membrane and, it was concluded that UF/NF/RO cannot serve as an penetrate the UF, NF, and RO membrane and, it was concluded that UF/NF/RO cannot absolute barrier to testosterone
Summary
The growing fear of a shortage of water resources is becoming an important topic as a severe paucity of water has been seen all over the globe. There is an increasing concern about the potentially harmful effects of some substances present in water bodies These emerging micropollutants (MPs) have been shown to be present in both industrial and domestic wastewater in unnoticeable quantities, with concentrations ranging from micro- and nanograms per litre scales [1]. Several natural and human-made compounds have been shown to modulate endocrine activity in vertebrates. Compounds acting in this way are collectively referred to as endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs). These chemicals enter the sewer system through disposal or excretion and are not completely removed during wastewater treatment. Numerous studies have detected EDCs, such as natural steroidal hormones [2]
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