Abstract
Water is a very valuable natural resource. As the demand for water increases the presence of emerging contaminants in wastewater has become a growing concern. This is particularly true when one considers direct reuse of wastewater. Obtaining sufficient removal of emerging contaminants will require determining the level of removal for the various unit operations in the wastewater treatment process. Membrane bioreactors are attractive as they combine an activated sludge process with a membrane separation step. They are frequently used in a wastewater treatment process and can operate at higher solid loadings than conventional activated sludge processes. Determining the level of removal of emerging contaminants in the membrane bioreactor step is, therefore, of great interest. Removal of emerging contaminants could be by adsorption onto the biomass or membrane surface, biotransformation, size exclusion by the membrane, or volatilization. Given the fact that most emerging contaminants are low molecule weight non-volatile compounds, the latter two methods of removal are usually unimportant. However, biotransformation and adsorption onto the biomass are important mechanisms of removal. It will be important to determine if the microorganisms present at given treatment facility are able to remove ECs present in the wastewater.
Highlights
Emerging contaminants (ECs) can refer to many types of chemicals such as endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs), fire retardants, therapeutics, personal care or household cleaning products, lawn care and agricultural products
The results showed that the surface charge and hydrophobicity of personal care products played a crucial role in their removal
ECs can be found in surface water, underground water and in drinking water mainly associated with human activities
Summary
Emerging contaminants (ECs) can refer to many types of chemicals such as endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs), fire retardants, therapeutics, personal care or household cleaning products, lawn care and agricultural products. These compounds can bioaccumulate in the food web and can adversely affect human health and the environment [1]. The fate and the mobility of these compounds was found to be strongly affected by their physio-chemical characteristics: evaporation, solubility, boiling point, chemical structure, presence of specific chemical functionalities, melting point, and complexation/sorption ability of the materials [8] The presence of these ECs in water systems leads to their uptake by animals and even in plants [10,11].
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