Journal
WATER SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Volume 83, Issue 8, Pages 1920-1931Publisher
IWA PUBLISHING
DOI: 10.2166/wst.2021.096
Keywords
biological treatment processes; carbamazepine; MBR; Organic Loading Rate; UASB
Funding
- Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the projects 'Combined System [UASB thorn SMEBR thornO3/AC, CTM2016-76910-R, CTM2013-46669-R]
- University of Alicante
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The study evaluated the biological removal of carbamazepine from low-strength municipal wastewater using an Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket reactor and a two-stage membrane bioreactor. It found that the highest removal rates were achieved during the anaerobic stage, with the aerobic treatment serving to further improve removal efficiency. The results demonstrate the potential of combined biological systems in removing recalcitrant pharmaceuticals.
An Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket reactor combined with a two-stage membrane bioreactor were operated for 193 days in order to evaluate the biological removal of carbamazepine (CBZ) from low-strength municipal wastewater. The system worked in three different organic load stages (0.7 +/- 0.1 kg COD.m(-3).d(-1), 0.4 +/- 0.1 kg COD.m(-3).d(-1) and 0.1 +/- 0.0 kg COD.m(-3).d(-1)) to assess the impact of the influent OLR on operational parameters such as anaerobic and aerobic sludge retention time (SRT), acidity, volatile fatty acids (VFAs), biomass activity or biogas production. The highest carbamazepine removals were achieved during the anaerobic stage (UASB reactor), reaching averages of 48.9%, 48.0% and 38.2% operating at high, medium and low OLR, respectively. The aerobic treatment (MBR) served as post-treatment, improving the removals, and the global UASB-MBR system reached averages of 70.0%, 59.6% and 49.8% when the influent was at medium and low OLR, respectively. The results demonstrate the potential of combined biological systems on the removal of recalcitrant pharmaceuticals.
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