Enhanced estrogen removal in activated sludge processes through the optimization of the hydraulic flow pattern
WATER RESEARCH
Authors: Coello-Garcia, T.; Curtis, T. P.; Mrozik, W.; Davenport, R. J.
Abstract
The removal of fi-estradiol (E2) and alpha-ethinylestradiol (EE2) in biological wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) would need to be improved in order to comply with prospective Environmental Quality Standards (EQS) of 0.4 and 0.035 ng.L-1 respectively. The effluent concentration of a micropollutant in an activated sludge process is a function of the removal rate, the hydraulic retention time (HRT) and the flow pattern, which is usually overlooked. In order to better understand this aspect, we carried out tracer studies in eight WWTPs in the UK and found that relatively modest changes in aeration tanks would translate into tangible improvements in their flow pattern. We further evaluated the degradation rates for El (estrone), E2, E3 (estriol) and EE2 in each WWTP and we estimated that the modification of the flow pattern would be sufficient to place effluent concentrations of E2 (23.2 L.giA " d(-1)
Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry determination of 34 priority and emerging pollutants in water from the influent and effluent of a drinking water treatment plant
JOURNAL OF CHROMATOGRAPHY A
Authors: Borrull, Josep; Colom, Agusti; Fabregas, Josepa; Borrull, Francesc; Pocurull, Eva
Abstract
This study evaluates the applicability of a method based on the direct injection of a large volume of water samples to identify and quantify 34 priority and emerging substances, most of them discussed in Directive 2013/39/EU on priority substances in the field of water policy, and Decision 2018/840/EU (Watch List). The method directly injects 500 mu L of filtered water sample and so does not use a pre-concentration step. The method was satisfactorily validated for influent and effluent water from a drinking water treatment plant, at three concentrations (1, 10 and 100 ng L-1) with precision and accuracies in the range 1-17% and 71-122% respectively. Sensitivity was good with detection limits in the range 0.15-10 ng L-1 and complied with EU limits in all cases except for estrone, 17-beta-estradiol and 17-alpha-ethinylestradiol. For these hormones, an on-line solid phase extraction was developed and evaluated. The methods were applied to the analysis of water collected at the influent and effluent of a drinking water treatment plant and revealed the presence of 18 of the target compounds in the influent water and 8 in the effluent water. This showed that most the compounds had been efficiently removed by the processes of the drinking water treatment plant. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.