Removal of pharmaceutical compounds from urban wastewater by an advanced bio-oxidation process based on fungi Trametes versicolor immobilized in a continuous RBC system
2018
del Álamo, Ana Cruz | Pariente, María Isabel | Vasiliadou, Ioanna | Padrino, Beatriz | Puyol, Daniel | Molina, Raul | Martínez, Fernando
Conventional wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are not able to remove completely some emerging contaminants, such as residual pharmaceutical compounds (PCs) with potential ecotoxicity to water bodies. An advanced bio-oxidation process (ABOP) using white-rot fungi (WRF) has been proposed as alternative biological treatment for degradation of non-biodegradable compounds. A synthetic and real wastewater spiked with 12 PCs at 50 μg L⁻¹ was treated by means of ABOP based on WRF in a rotating biological contactor (RBC) at 1 day of hydraulic retention time (HRT). The ABOP achieved a remarkable biological performance in terms of TOC removal and reduction of N-NH₄⁺ and P-PO₄³⁻ nutrients. Likewise, 5 of the 12 PCs were eliminated with removal efficiencies ranging from 80 to 95%, whereas 6 of 12 PCs were eliminated with removal values ranging from 50 to 70%. The anaerobic digestion of the fungal sludge generated upon the treatment was also evaluated, obtaining a methane yield of 250 mL CH₄ gVS⁻¹. These results evidenced that the proposed ABOP is a promising alternative for the sustainable wastewater treatment of urban effluents, combining advanced oxidation with biological operation for the removal of emerging PCs and energy recovery.
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