Fate and removal of typical pharmaceutical and personal care products in a wastewater treatment plant from Beijing: a mass balance study

doi:10.1007/s11783-016-0837-y

Front. Environ. Sci. Eng.

2016, Vol. 10

Issue (3) : 491-501 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-016-0837-y

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Fate and removal of typical pharmaceutical and personal care products in a wastewater treatment plant from Beijing: a mass balance study

Jie GAO^1,², Jun HUANG¹(

), Weiwei CHEN^1,³, Bin WANG¹, Yujue WANG¹, Shubo DENG¹, Gang YU¹

¹. State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control (SKJLESPC), Beijing Key Laboratory of Emerging Organic Contaminants Control (BKLEOCC), School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
². Beijing Municipal Solid Waste and Chemical Management Center, Beijing 100084, China
³. Xiamen Urban Planning and Design Institute, Xiamen 361012, China

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Abstract

The fate and removal of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) has received great attention during the last decade. Numerous data concerning concentrations in the water phase can be found in the literature, however corresponding data from sludge as well as associated mass balance calculations are very limited. In the present study, the adsorbed and dissolved concentrations of 9 PPCPs were investigated in each unit of a WWTP in Beijing, China. Based on the calculation of mass balance, the relative mass distribution and removal efficiency of each target compound was obtained at each process. The amount of PPCPs entering into the WWTP ranged from 12 g·d⁻¹ to 3848 g·d⁻¹. Five target compounds (caffeine, chloramphenicol, bezafibrate, clofibric acid, and N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide) were effectively removed, with rates of 57%–100%. Negative removal efficiencies were obtained for sulpiride, metoprolol, nalidixic acid, and carbamazepine, ranging from -19% to -79%. PPCPs mainly existed in dissolved form (≥92%) in both the raw influent and the final effluent. The sludge cake carried a much lower amount of PPCPs (17 g·d⁻¹) compared with the discharged effluent (402 g·d⁻¹). In A²/O treatment tanks, the anaerobic and anoxic tanks showed good performance for PPCPs removal, and the amount of adsorbed PPCPs was increased. The results reveal that both the dissolved and the adsorbed phases should be considered when assessing the removal capacity of each A²/O tank.

Keywords PPCPs A²/O mass balance removal efficiency sludge

Corresponding Author(s): Jun HUANG

Online First Date: 16 March 2016 Issue Date: 05 April 2016

Cite this article:

Jie GAO,Jun HUANG,Weiwei CHEN, et al. Fate and removal of typical pharmaceutical and personal care products in a wastewater treatment plant from Beijing: a mass balance study[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2016, 10(3): 491-501.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/10.1007/s11783-016-0837-y
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/Y2016/V10/I3/491

Fig.1 Schematic diagram of the treatment process and sampling sites

Fig.2 Concentrations (a) and composition profiles (b) of target PPCPs in water samples dissolved phase

Fig.3 Dissolved (a) and adsorbed (b) concentrations of target PPCPs in different types of sludge

Tab.1 Total mass of PPCPs in each process unit (g·d^-¹)

Fig.4 Variation of PPCPs dissolved mass in the receiving river with distance from the discharge point

Fig.5 Relative mass distribution of caffeine (a) and DEET (b) in each process unit

Tab.2 Removal efficiencies of PPCPs in each unit (%)

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