Ozone and biofiltration as an alternative to reverse osmosis for removing PPCPs and EDCs from wastewater
type: CreativeWork
description: A lot of attention has been paid to trace amounts of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) and endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) in drinking water supplies. Current water and wastewater treatment techniques, such as coagulation, flocculation, and sedimentation for water treatment and the conventional activated sludge process for wastewater treatment, have shown only limited success in their removal. Although there is a lack of evidence linking these emerging microconstituents to adverse human health effects, not a lot is known about the effects of long term exposure to these compounds and more research is still needed. This study examined advanced wastewater treatment processes, such as membrane bioreactors (MBRs), along with processes that are not normally used for treating wastewater to remove these emerging contaminants. The processes include oxidation with ozone coupled with biological active filtration (BAF) to increase the removal efficiencies of these compounds. A pilot scale membrane bioreactor (MBR) was set up at the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority (ABCWUA) Southside Water Reclamation Plant (SWRP). The MBR was continuously fed primary treated wastewater. The MBR effluent was used to feed an ozone contactor, which then fed a BAF column. The MBR was operated at an SRT of 10 days throughout the duration of the experiments. Three ozone doses where examined. The applied ozone doses were 2, 4, and 8 mg/L, which correspond to a ratio of 0.5, 1, and 2 mg ozone/mg TOC. After ozone treatment, the water was pumped to the BAF column. The BAF column used anthracite media that was seeded with MLSS and soaked in MBR feedwater for a week to establish a bio-growth prior to the experiments. The system was run for at least one week between sampling events to establish steady state conditions at each new ozone dose. To determine steady state conditions, TOC, UV254, SUVA, and BDOC removal were evaluated. This study also investigated the re…
abstract: A lot of attention has been paid to trace amounts of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) and endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) in drinking water supplies. Current water and wastewater treatment techniques, such as coagulation, flocculation, and sedimentation for water treatment and the conventional activated sludge process for wastewater treatment, have shown only limited success in their removal. Although there is a lack of evidence linking these emerging microconstituents to adverse human health effects, not a lot is known about the effects of long term exposure to these compounds and more research is still needed. This study examined advanced wastewater treatment processes, such as membrane bioreactors (MBRs), along with processes that are not normally used for treating wastewater to remove these emerging contaminants. The processes include oxidation with ozone coupled with biological active filtration (BAF) to increase the removal efficiencies of these compounds. A pilot scale membrane bioreactor (MBR) was set up at the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority (ABCWUA) Southside Water Reclamation Plant (SWRP). The MBR was continuously fed primary treated wastewater. The MBR effluent was used to feed an ozone contactor, which then fed a BAF column. The MBR was operated at an SRT of 10 days throughout the duration of the experiments. Three ozone doses where examined. The applied ozone doses were 2, 4, and 8 mg/L, which correspond to a ratio of 0.5, 1, and 2 mg ozone/mg TOC. After ozone treatment, the water was pumped to the BAF column. The BAF column used anthracite media that was seeded with MLSS and soaked in MBR feedwater for a week to establish a bio-growth prior to the experiments. The system was run for at least one week between sampling events to establish steady state conditions at each new ozone dose. To determine steady state conditions, TOC, UV254, SUVA, and BDOC removal were evaluated. This study also investigated the re…
author: Lee, Carson Odell
language: English
keywords: Sewage--Purification--Organic compounds removal, Sewage--Purification--Ozonization, Sewage--Purification--Fixed-film biological process, Membrane reactors
date published: 2010-06-25T07:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T05:26:55Z
provider: University of New Mexico
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of New Mexico

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/1928/10831