Removal of personal care products (PCPs) from greywater using a submerged membrane bioreactor (SMBR): The effect of hydraulic retention time

Abstract

The rising trend of depletion in global water supplies and the consistent accumulation of emerging environmental contaminants in water, soil and plant have become an international concern during the past decade. In recent years, the removal of personal care products (PCPs) from greywater has inspired a great attention for facile water recycling. In this study, the performance of a specially designed submerged membrane bioreactor (SMBR) system toward high-efficiency degradation of PCPs released through household greywater was investigated. The influent PCP-rich greywater was prepared by mixing commercial PCPs and the SMBR operated under different hydraulic retention time (HRT) values for 150 days of continuous operation. The results revealed that HRT has a striking influence on the treatment performance of the SMBR for PCP contaminants while the SMBR displayed a superior degradation capability for all categories of PCP contaminants (including antimicrobial agent, preservative, fragrance and UV Filter) at the effluent stream. Triclosan, methylparaben and propylparaben as the contaminants with the highest concentration at prepared PCP-rich greywater were removed up to 98.20%, 99.96% and 99.97%, respectively and other ones had more than 64% removal efficiency at HRT of 16 h. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biological oxygen demand (BOD) at the optimum HRT value were negligible.