Elimination of Organic Micropollutants in a Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgraded with a Full-Scale Post-Ozonation Followed by Sand Filtration
Top Cited Papers
- 13 August 2009
- journal article
- Published by American Chemical Society (ACS) in Environmental Science & Technology
- Vol. 43 (20), 7862-7869
- https://doi.org/10.1021/es9014629
Abstract
The removal efficiency for 220 micropollutants was studied at the scale of a municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) upgraded with post-ozonation followed by sand filtration. During post-ozonation, compounds with activated aromatic moieties, amine functions, or double bonds such as sulfamethoxazole, diclofenac, or carbamazepine with second-order rate constants for the reaction with ozone >104 M−1 s−1 at pH 7 (fast-reacting) were eliminated to concentrations below the detection limit for an ozone dose of 0.47 g O3 g−1 dissolved organic carbon (DOC). Compounds more resistant to oxidation by ozone such as atenolol and benzotriazole were increasingly eliminated with increasing ozone doses, resulting in >85% removal for a medium ozone dose (∼0.6 g O3 g−1 DOC). Only a few micropollutants such as some X-ray contrast media and triazine herbicides with second-order rate constants 100 ng L−1. The combination of reaction kinetics and reactor hydraulics, based on laboratory- and full-scale data, enabled a quantification of the results by model calculations. This conceptual approach allows a direct upscaling from laboratory- to full-scale systems and can be applied to other similar systems. The carcinogenic by-products N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) (≤14 ng L−1) and bromate (−1) were produced during ozonation, however their concentrations were below or in the range of the drinking water standards. Furthermore, it could be demonstrated that biological sand filtration is an efficient additional barrier for the elimination of biodegradable compounds formed during ozonation such as NDMA. The energy requirement for the additional post-ozonation step is about 0.035 kWh m−3, which corresponds to 12% of a typical medium-sized nutrient removal plant (5 g DOC m−3).Keywords
This publication has 31 references indexed in Scilit:
- JEM Spotlight: Monitoring the treatment efficiency of a full scale ozonation on a sewage treatment plant with a mode-of-action based test batteryJournal of Environmental Monitoring, 2009
- Are we about to upgrade wastewater treatment for removing organic micropollutants?Water Science & Technology, 2008
- Removal of selected pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) and endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) during sand filtration and ozonation at a municipal sewage treatment plantWater Research, 2007
- Kinetics of triclosan oxidation by aqueous ozone and consequent loss of antibacterial activity: Relevance to municipal wastewater ozonationWater Research, 2007
- Oxidative degradation of N-nitrosodimethylamine by conventional ozonation and the advanced oxidation process ozone/hydrogen peroxideWater Research, 2007
- Ozonation and Advanced Oxidation of Wastewater: Effect of O3Dose, pH, DOM and HO•-Scavengers on Ozone Decomposition and HO•GenerationOzone: Science & Engineering, 2006
- Mechanistic and kinetic evaluation of organic disinfection by-product and assimilable organic carbon (AOC) formation during the ozonation of drinking waterWater Research, 2006
- Removal of pharmaceuticals and fragrances in biological wastewater treatmentWater Research, 2005
- Removal of Estrogenic Activity and Formation of Oxidation Products during Ozonation of 17α-EthinylestradiolEnvironmental Science & Technology, 2004
- Ozonation: a tool for removal of pharmaceuticals, contrast media and musk fragrances from wastewater?Water Research, 2003