Effect of concentration and hydraulic reaction time on the removal of pharmaceutical compounds in a membrane bioreactor inoculated with activated sludge.

ABSTRACT: Pharmaceuticals are often not fully removed in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and are thus being detected at trace levels in water bodies all over the world posing a risk to numerous organisms. These organic micropollutants (OMPs) reach WWTPs at concentrations sometimes too low to serve as growth substrate for microorganisms; thus, co-metabolism is thought to be the main conversion mechanism. In this study, the microbial removal of six pharmaceuticals was investigated in a membrane bioreactor at increasing concentrations (4-800 nM) of the compounds and using three different hydraulic retention times (HRT; 1, 3.5 and 5 days). The bioreactor was inoculated with activated sludge from a municipal WWTP and fed with ammonium, acetate and methanol as main growth substrates to mimic co-metabo

SUBMITTER: Rios-Miguel AB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8313272 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature