Abstract
Mathematical modelling plays a key role in understanding and quantifying uncertainties of emerging pollutants in wastewater treatment processes (WWTPs). This paper presents for the first time a simplified emerging pollutant pathway that incorporates two pathways to sequestration. It develops deterministic and stochastic ordinary differential equations to gain insight into the fate and behaviour of a case study pharmaceutical, with particular focus on sorption to the solid phase, as well as the nature of the experimentally measured solid parent compound. Statistical estimation and inferential procedures are developed and via a proof-of-concept examination, the study explores the transformation pathways of the bioactive chemicals (BACs) in the bioreactor, which is the heart of the WWTP. Simulations of 17α−ethinylestradiol (EE2) as a case study, show good agreement with data. The results suggest that the measured EE2-parent concentration in the solid phase is very similar to the model-based sequestered (rather than adsorbed) EE2-parent concentration.
Highlights
Maintaining water quality is a major global challenge due to the increasing use of pharmaceutical drugs and related bioactive chemicals (BACs)
This study shows the usefulness of mathematical modelling in wastewater treatment as the paper evaluates sequestration of EE2, and this will inform future efforts to develop and as well as apply models better able to fit and/or predict BAC behaviour and fate in the environment
Mathematical modelling of emerging pollutants in wastewater treatment offers a way of investigating phenomena and establishing which mechanisms affect the fate and behaviour of BACs in wastewater treatment processes (WWTPs)
Summary
Maintaining water quality is a major global challenge due to the increasing use of pharmaceutical drugs and related bioactive chemicals (BACs). Increasingly stringent legislation such as the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) 2015/495 requires those responsible for wastewater treatment to monitor the presence of these pollutants with the future aim of improving the quality of the wastewater effluent released to surface waters (Carvalho et al, 2015; Barbosa et al, 2016). This has resulted in a significant number of investigations into the removal of BACs in the WWTP. Recent studies include mathematical models that take into consideration the influence of free (or parent) compounds as well as retransformable products such as conjugated compounds (Xu et al, 2016), where conjugated compounds are Phase II metabolites formed as a result of drug transformation processes (Coleman, 2010)
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