Removal and fate of micropollutants in a sponge-based moving bed bioreactor

Yunlong Luo; Wenshan Guo; Huu Hao Ngo; Long Duc Nghiem; Faisal Ibney Hai; Jinguo Kang; Siqing Xia; Zhiqiang Zhang; William Evan Price

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2014.02.107

Removal and fate of micropollutants in a sponge-based moving bed bioreactor

Bioresour Technol. 2014 May:159:311-9. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2014.02.107. Epub 2014 Mar 5.

Authors

Yunlong Luo¹, Wenshan Guo², Huu Hao Ngo¹, Long Duc Nghiem³, Faisal Ibney Hai³, Jinguo Kang³, Siqing Xia⁴, Zhiqiang Zhang⁴, William Evan Price⁵

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia.
² Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia. Electronic address: wguo@uts.edu.au.
³ Strategic Water Infrastructure Laboratory, School of Civil Mining and Environmental Engineering, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China.
⁵ Strategic Water Infrastructure Laboratory, Australian Institute for Innovative Materials (AIIM), University of Wollongong, Innovation Campus, North Wollongong, NSW 2500, Australia.

PMID: 24658104
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2014.02.107

Abstract

This study investigated the removal of micropollutants using polyurethane sponge as attached-growth carrier. Batch experiments demonstrated that micropollutants could adsorb to non-acclimatized sponge cubes to varying extents. Acclimatized sponge showed significantly enhanced removal of some less hydrophobic compounds (log D<2.5), such as ibuprofen, acetaminophen, naproxen, and estriol, as compared with non-acclimatized sponge. The results for bench-scale sponge-based moving bed bioreactor (MBBR) system elucidated compound-specific variation in removal, ranging from 25.9% (carbamazepine) to 96.8% (β-Estradiol 17-acetate) on average. In the MBBR system, biodegradation served as a major removal pathway for most compounds. However, sorption to sludge phase was also a notable removal mechanism of some persistent micropollutants. Particularly, carbamazepine, ketoprofen and pentachlorophenol were found at high concentrations (7.87, 6.05 and 5.55 μg/g, respectively) on suspended biosolids. As a whole, the effectiveness of MBBR for micropollutant removal was comparable with those of activated sludge processes and MBRs.

Keywords: Attached-growth; Biodegradation; Micropollutants removal; Moving bed bioreactor (MBBR); Sponge.

MeSH terms

Batch Cell Culture Techniques
Biodegradation, Environmental
Bioreactors*
Nitrogen / isolation & purification
Organic Chemicals / isolation & purification
Phosphorus / isolation & purification
Sewage / chemistry
Water Pollutants, Chemical / isolation & purification*
Water Purification / instrumentation*
Water Purification / methods*

Substances

Organic Chemicals
Sewage
Water Pollutants, Chemical
Phosphorus
Nitrogen