Evaluation of a biological post-treatment after full-scale ozonation at a municipal wastewater treatment plant

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Fabian Itzel
  • Nicolai Baetz
  • Lotta L. Hohrenk
  • Linda Gehrmann
  • Demet Antakyali
  • Torsten C. Schmidt
  • Jochen Tuerk

To reduce the discharge of trace organic compounds into water bodies associated with potential toxic effects such as endocrine disruption, new advanced treatment methods are being investigated at several wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). One of the most studied and already implemented technologies is ozonation. However, ozonation only partially oxidizes trace organic compounds (TrOC) and as a result, transformation products (TPs) with unknown properties can be formed. In order to minimise the risk of releasing unknown and potentially toxic TPs into surface water, it is recommended to install a biological post-treatment after ozonation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of a moving bed reactor following ozonation in a full-scale plant. Different ozone dosages (zspec. = 0.3, 0.5, 0.7 mg O3/mgDOC) were investigated. To assess the biological activity of the post-treatment, the assimilable organic carbon (AOC) was determined in addition to the formed biomass. Furthermore, selected TrOC were analysed in parallel to monitor the ozonation efficiency at different ozone doses. In addition, estrogenic, androgenic as well as corresponding antagonistic effects were investigated after each treatment step using the A-YES and A-YAS assay. A non-target screening was performed to evaluate a trend analysis of formed TPs as well as their removal by the post-treatment procedure. The results proved the successful design of the biological post-treatment reactor by a constant biofilm development and reduction of the AOC. Endocrine effects were removed below the limit of detection (LOD) of 10 pg EEQ/L already after ozonation for all applied ozone doses. Antagonistic effects were not significantly reduced during ozonation and subsequent biological post-treatment. For this reason, further research is needed to evaluate different post-treatment technologies. The trend analysis from non-target screening data showed a reduction of about 95% of the number of formed TPs by the biological post-treatment. Consequently, an assessment of the biological activity and the elimination capacity of a certain biological post-treatment technique is thus possible by applying the AOC in combination with a non-target screening.

Original languageEnglish
Article number115316
JournalWater Research
Volume170
ISSN0043-1354
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.03.2020
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd

    Research areas

  • Advanced oxidation processes, Biological post-treatment, Endocrine activity, Micropollutant removal, Municipal wastewater treatment, Ozonation

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. Guest editorial: Leadership in school health promotion. The multiple perspectives of a neglected research area
  2. Creditor Relations - bilaterale Transparenz im Firmenkunden-Kreditgeschäft am Beispiel handwerklicher Betriebe
  3. Bearbeitung mathematischer Problemlöseaufgaben unterstützt durch papier- und videobasierte Lösungsbeispiele
  4. Zur Berücksichtigung eines Risikomanagementsystems bei der Bewertung klein- und mittelständischer Unternehmen
  5. Versorgungslogistik in der Zigarettenindustrie: Das Distributionskonzept der Reemtsma Cigarettenfabriken GmbH
  6. Health and Health Literacy in Teacher Education: Comparative Analyses of Student Teachers and Teacher Trainees
  7. Ökonomische Wirkung der Berichterstattung des Abschlussprüfers über key audit matters im Bestätigungsvermerk
  8. How to Assess Knowledge Cumulation in Environmental Governance Research? Conceptual and Empirical Explorations
  9. Effectiveness of gamified digital interventions in mental health prevention and health promotion among adults
  10. Expression of cyclooxygenase isozymes during morphogenesis and cycling of pelage hair follicles in mouse skin.
  11. Auditory emotion word primes influence emotional face categorization in children and adults, but not vice versa
  12. Die Entwicklung des Kündigungsschutzes von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart (mit einer vergleichenden Darstellung)
  13. The impact of CEO overconfidence and firm performance on SOP dissent – Evidence for SOP voting firms in Germany
  14. Santner, Eric. My own private Germany. Daniel Paul Schreber's secret history of modernity. Princeton UP, 1996, 214 pp.
  15. Corrigendum to "What drives policy decision-making related to species conservation?" [Biol. Conserv. 142 (2010) 1370-1380]
  16. New concepts of extrusion dies to reduce the anisotropy of extruded profiles by means of additive manufacturing
  17. A novel telecoupling framework to assess social relations across spatial scales for ecosystem services research
  18. Impact of land transformation, management and governance on subjective wellbeing across social–ecological systems
  19. Soft Optimal Computing to Identify Surface Roughness in Manufacturing Using a Gaussian and a Trigonometric Regressor