UTILIZACIÓN DE UN BIORREACTOR CON MEMBRANAS SUMERGIDAS PARA EL TRATAMIENTO DE AGUAS RESIDUALES PROCEDENTES DE UN HOSPITAL ONCOLÓGICO

Abstract

Surface waters pollution with the so-called emerging pollutants (pharmaceutical compounds and pesticides, among others) is one of the great environmental problems of the 21st century. Even though conventional activated sludge systems alone are not capable of carrying out the decontamination of these waters, the technology of submerged membrane bioreactors (SMBR) has been recently considered for the treatment of these contaminated waters, since the activated sludges that are part of these systems work under non-conventional operating conditions (high sludge age and high biomass concentration). This can favor the gradual growth of the bacterial community, as well as the development of physiological and adaptive capacities of microorganisms to degrade a specific organic compound. In the present work, the operation of a pilot SMBR installed at the exit of an oncology hospital was monitored, for which the chemical oxygen demand and nitrogen in the residual input, in the supernatant and in the permeate of the SMBR were determined. Finally, the heterotrophic yield coefficient was estimated by means of respirometric tests, observing the substrate storage phenomenon as a response of microorganisms for the development of physiological adaptive capacities. In general, the results obtained show the ability of microorganisms to adapt to the presence of pharmaceutical compounds from an oncology hospital, as well as the efficiency of these systems for the hospital wastewater treatment.