Removal of pharmaceuticals from WWTP effluent: Removal of EfOM followed by advanced oxidation

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) throughout the Netherlands contain significant concentrations of pharmaceuticals (25-65 mu g/L) and about 10-20 mg C/L dissolved non-biodegradable organic matter. By means of IEX mainly the humic acid fraction of the effluent organic matter can be removed, whereas O-3/biofiltration mainly removes the hydrophobic fraction. For the first time the combination of these processes with O-3/H2O2, UV/H2O2 or UV/O-3 was tested for the removal of pharmaceuticals from wastewater effluent. Based on initial laboratory experiments, a pilot installation was built in which IEX followed by UV/H2O2 was applied to real WWTP effluent. The process appeared to be very robust, and able to remove a very broad range of different pharmaceuticals. The additional costs for this treatment are estimated at approximately (sic)0.34/m(3)-treated effluent, which is in the same order of magnitude as estimated for other additional, but less versatile, treatment processes. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.