Variations in Illicit Compound Discharged from Treated Wastewater

The detection and monitoring of illicit drug concentrations in environmental waters is of increasing interest. This study aimed to determine if illicit and regulated compounds, their potential pre-cursors, and metabolites varied in amount discharged into the environment from treated wastewater at different facilities. Water samples were taken from discharge points of four different tertiary wastewater treatment plants discharging directly into the Hawkesbury-Nepean River (Australia) on two different occasions and analysed to determine the concentrations of compounds including: ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, amphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, methamphetamine, cocaine, and benzoylecgonine. Here, we show that detectable levels of illicit drug and metabolites are being emitted on a consistent basis after having persisted through the wastewater treatment process. The concentrations of methamphetamine are in excess of previously reported surface water concentrations. The estimated total load of compounds being discharged on a daily basis is greater than similar sized catchment areas. The results presented here are of concern from both an ecological and human health perspective.

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A Comparative Study of a Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor and Bio-shaft Technology for a Wastewater Treatment Process: A review

Journal of Engineering ◽

10.31026/j.eng.2021.06.04 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 27 (6) ◽

pp. 47-58

Author(s):

Rana Hasan Hasannajy ◽

Basim Khudair Al-Obaidi ◽

Mohammed Sadeq Salman

Keyword(s):

Wastewater Treatment ◽

Biological Treatment ◽

Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽

Low Cost ◽

Ventilation System ◽

Biofilm Reactor ◽

Production Performance ◽

Treated Wastewater ◽

Active Sludge ◽

Wastewater Treatment Process

In addition to the primary treatment, biological treatment is used to reduce inorganic and organic components in the wastewater. The separation of biomass from treated wastewater is usually important to meet the effluent disposal requirements, so the MBBR system has been one of the most important modern technologies that use plastic tankers to transport biomass with wastewater, which works in pure biofilm, at low concentrations of suspended solids. However, biological treatment has been developed using the active sludge mixing process with MBBR. Turbo4bio was established as a sustainable and cost-effective solution for wastewater treatment plants in the early 1990s and ran on minimal sludge, and is easy to maintain. This has now evolved into a technology that has proven successful worldwide with trouble-free operation and improved Turbo4bio technology, an advanced high-intensity ventilation system fully enclosed and non-mechanical, ensuring odor-free operation, simple and environmentally friendly operation and long life of domestic and commercial wastewater treatment And the municipality. In this paper, a comparison between MBBR and T4B treatment system was made. As a general review of previous research and experiments, it is possible to reduce the total cost based on building all plant structures to obtain concentrations within the permissible limits of pollutants at the final outlets. It is clear that the use of MBBR has contributed to the realization of simultaneous biological phosphorous and nitrogen removal experiments, which aim to change the more significant methods developed from conventional methods, from the advantages of the Turbo 4 Bioreactor with low cost and high production performance, with less energy consumption and lower operating costs because it does not require Chemicals for processing, cleaning, and disinfection. It only takes small amounts of chlorine, the use of a compressor system for air, and rapid recovery providing high rates of generation of biomass to restore the plant quickly.

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Tracking SARS-CoV-2 RNA through the wastewater treatment process

10.1101/2020.10.14.20212837 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Hala Abu Ali ◽

Karin Yaniv ◽

Edo Bar-Zeev ◽

Sanhita Chaudhury ◽

Marilou Shaga ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Wastewater Treatment ◽

Treatment Process ◽

Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽

Preliminary Evidence ◽

Treated Wastewater ◽

Municipal Sewage ◽

Wastewater Treatment Process ◽

Important Barrier ◽

Rna Concentration

ABSTRACTThe municipal sewage carries the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), shed by COVID-19 patients, to wastewater treatment plants. Proper wastewater treatment can provide an important barrier for preventing uncontrolled discharged of the virus into the environment. However, the role of the different wastewater treatment stages in reducing virus concentrations was, thus far, unknown. In this work, we quantified SARS-CoV-RNA in the raw sewage and along the main stages of the wastewater process from two different plants in Israel during this COVID-19 outbreak. We found that ca. 2 Log removal could be attained after primary and secondary treatment. Despite this removal, significant concentrations of SARS-CoV-RNA (>100 copies per mL) could still be detected in the treated wastewater. However, after treatment by chlorination, SARS-CoV-RNA was detected only once, likely due to insufficient chlorine dose. Our results highlight the need to protect wastewater treatment plants operators, as well as populations living near areas of wastewater discharge, from the risk of infection. In addition, our results emphasize the capabilities and limitations of the conventional wastewater treatment process in reducing SARS-CoV-RNA concentration, and present preliminary evidence for the importance of tertiary treatment and chlorination in reducing SARA-CoV-2 dissemination.

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Ultrafiltration Process in Disinfection and Advanced Treatment of Tertiary Treated Wastewater

Membranes ◽

10.3390/membranes11030221 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 221

Author(s):

Rafał Tytus Bray ◽

Katarzyna Jankowska ◽

Eliza Kulbat ◽

Aneta Łuczkiewicz ◽

Aleksandra Sokołowska

Keyword(s):

Wastewater Treatment ◽

Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽

Microscopic Analysis ◽

Fecal Coliforms ◽

Treated Wastewater ◽

Chemical Parameters ◽

Virus Particles ◽

E Coli ◽

The One ◽

Physical And Chemical

The paper presents the results of research on the use of ultrafiltration, using membranes of 200 and 400 kDa separation, for disinfection of municipal treated wastewater. The research was conducted on a fractional technical scale using real municipal treated wastewater from two large wastewater treatment plants treating most of the wastewater over the one-million polycentric Gdańsk agglomeration (1.2 million inhabitants). UF 200 kDa and UF 400 kDa processes enabled further improvement of the physical and chemical parameters of treated wastewater. Total phosphorus (to below 0.2 mg/L–UF 200 kDa, 0.13 mg/L–UF 400 kDa) and turbid substances (to below 0.2 mg/L, both membranes) were removed in the highest degree. COD was reduced efficiently (to below 25.6 mgO2/L–UF 200 kDa, 26.8 mgO2/L–UF 400 kDa), while total nitrogen was removed to a small extent (to 7.12 mg/L–UF 200 kDa and 5.7 mg/L–UF 400 kDa. Based on the reduction of indicator bacteria; fecal coliforms including E. coli (FC) and fecal enterococci (FE) it was found that the ultrafiltration is an effective method of disinfection. Not much indicator bacterial were observed in the permeate after processes (UF 200 kDa; FC—5 CFU/L; FE—1 CFU/L and UF 400 kDa; FC—70 CFU/L; FE—10 CFU/L. However, microscopic analysis of prokaryotic cells and virus particles showed their presence after the application of both membrane types; TCN 3.0 × 102 cells/mL–UF 200 kDa, 5.0 × 103 cells/mL–UF 400 kDa, VP 1.0 × 105/mL. The presence of potentially pathogenic, highly infectious virus particles means that ultrafiltration cannot be considered a sufficient disinfection method for treated wastewater diverted for reuse or discharged from high load wastewater treatment plants to recreational areas. For full microbiological safety it would be advisable to apply an additional disinfection method (e.g., ozonation).

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Detection and molecular characterization of enteric adenovirus in treated wastewater in the Brazilian Federal District

SN Applied Sciences ◽

10.1007/s42452-021-04678-2 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 3 (7) ◽

Author(s):

T. S. C. Quintão ◽

F. G. Silva ◽

A. L. Pereira ◽

W. N. Araújo ◽

P. M. Oliveira ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Phylogenetic Analysis ◽

Wastewater Treatment ◽

Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽

Federal District ◽

Treated Wastewater ◽

Conventional Pcr ◽

Rainfall Index ◽

Enteric Adenovirus ◽

Enteric Adenoviruses

AbstractHuman enteric viruses, such as enteric adenoviruses (HAdV), are known to be involved with gastrointestinal disorders, especially acute gastroenteritis. Several studies have used HAdV as an indicator of water quality, since they are considered highly stable and widely distributed viruses in water matrices. The aim of this study was to detect and genotype HAdVs in water matrices impacted by discharges of treated effluents from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Wastewater treatment plants from the sanitary system of the Brazilian Federal District were assessed in 2018 and 2019. Samples were collected upstream and downstream from discharge points for each WWTP. Viral concentration based on adsorption-elution and conventional PCR was used for molecular detection, and positive samples were sequenced for phylogenetic analysis. Pluviosity data for the period in which the samples were collected were obtained. Our results demonstrated the presence of HAdVs in 27.2% (61/224) of the samples. The positivity was significantly higher in downstream samples compared to upstream. Moreover, the HAdV positivity was higher in downstream samples collected from receiving water bodies impacted by secondary-level WWTPs in comparison with those impacted by tertiary-level WWTPs. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated the presence of genotypes 40 and 41, with prevalence of HAdV genotype 41. Despite the predominance of HAdV-41, an increasing frequency of the HAdV-40 was associated with higher pluviosity. In conclusion, this study is the first documentation in the Brazilian Federal District dealing with the prevalence and diversity of HAdVs in several WWTP, along with their correlation with rainfall index.

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Possible impact of treated wastewater discharge on incidence of antibiotic resistant bacteria in river water

Water Science & Technology ◽

10.2166/wst.2001.0077 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 43 (2) ◽

pp. 91-99 ◽

Cited By ~ 79

Author(s):

T. Iwane ◽

T. Urase ◽

K. Yamamoto

Keyword(s):

Wastewater Treatment ◽

River Water ◽

Wastewater Treatment Plant ◽

Treatment Process ◽

Treatment Plant ◽

Treated Wastewater ◽

Resistant Bacteria ◽

Wastewater Discharge ◽

Wastewater Treatment Process ◽

Antibiotic Resistant

Escherichia coli and coliform group bacteria resistant to seven antibiotics were investigated in the Tama River, a typical urbanized river in Tokyo, Japan, and at a wastewater treatment plant located on the river. The percentages of antibiotic resistance in the wastewater effluent were, in most cases, higher than the percentages in the river water, which were observed increasing downstream. Since the possible increase in the percentages in the river was associated with treated wastewater discharges, it was concluded that the river, which is contaminated by treated wastewater with many kinds of pollutants, is also contaminated with antibiotic resistant coliform group bacteria and E.coli. The percentages of resistant bacteria in the wastewater treatment plant were mostly observed decreasing during the treatment process. It was also demonstrated that the percentages of resistance in raw sewage are significantly higher than those in the river water and that the wastewater treatment process investigated in this study works against most of resistant bacteria in sewage.

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Biological Activity of Wastewater Assessed Using in Vitro Cell-Based Assays

10.21203/rs.3.rs-513231/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Adamo R. Petosa ◽

Monica Nowierski ◽

Viviane Yargeau

Keyword(s):

Wastewater Treatment ◽

Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽

Estrogenic Activity ◽

Solid Phase ◽

Treated Wastewater ◽

Chemical Analyses ◽

Untreated Wastewater ◽

17Β Estradiol ◽

Receiving Waters

Abstract Bioanalytical tools, namely in vitro bioassays, can be employed in tandem with chemical analyses to assess the efficacy of wastewater treatment and the potential for adverse effects from the discharges of wastewater into receiving waters. In the present study, samples of untreated wastewater (i.e. influent) and treated wastewater (i.e. effluent) were collected from two wastewater treatment plants and a wastewater treatment lagoon serving municipalities in southern Ontario, Canada. In addition, grab samples of surface water were collected downstream of the lagoon discharge. After solid phase extraction (SPE) using ion-exchange columns for basic/neutral and acidic compounds, respectively, the extracts were analyzed for a suite of 16 indicator compounds. The two SPE extracts were combined for analysis of biological responses in four in vitro cell-based bioassays. The concentrations of several indicator compounds, including the estrogens, 17β-estradiol and 17α-ethinylestradiol, were below the limits of detection. However, androstenedione and estrone were detected in several influent samples. The concentrations of these steroid hormones and some of the other indicator compounds declined during treatment but acesulfame K, carbamazepine, trimethoprim and DEET persisted in the effluent. The MTS- CellTiter 96® AQueous One Solution Cell Proliferation Assay (MTS) indicated that cell viability was not affected by exposure to the extracts. The Qiagen Nuclear Receptors 10-Pathway Reporter Array indicated that several cellular pathways were upregulated, with the greatest upregulation observed with the estrogen receptor (i.e. induction ratios 12 to 47) and the liver X receptor (i.e. induction ratios 10 to 45). The ERα CALUX assay indicated that estrogenic activity was lower in effluents compared to influents, with the greatest estrogenic activity observed for grab samples of influent from the lagoon (i.e. 56-215 ng L-1 17β-estradiol equivalents). Finally, the results of the Nrf2 Luciferase Luminescence Assay indicated a lower oxidative stress in the effluent samples. Overall, the present study demonstrates that chemical analyses are limited in their ability to predict or explain reductions in the toxicity of treated wastewater. There are thus advantages to using a combination of chemical analyses and in vitro bioassays to monitor the treatment efficiency of wastewater treatment plants and to predict the potential impacts of wastewater discharges into receiving waters.

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Contribution of prokaryotes and eukaryotes to CO2 emissions in the wastewater treatment process

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.9325 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

pp. e9325

Author(s):

Katarzyna Jaromin-Gleń ◽

Roman Babko ◽

Tatiana Kuzmina ◽

Yaroslav Danko ◽

Grzegorz Łagód ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Wastewater Treatment ◽

Activated Sludge ◽

Greenhouse Effect ◽

Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Batch Reactors ◽

Sequencing Batch Reactors ◽

Wastewater Treatment Process ◽

Eukaryotic Organisms ◽

Quantitative Contribution

Reduction of the greenhouse effect is primarily associated with the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the gases that increases the greenhouse effect - it is responsible for about half of the greenhouse effect. Significant sources of CO2 are wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and waste management, with about 3% contribution to global emissions. CO2 is produced mainly in the aerobic stage of wastewater purification and is a consequence of activated sludge activity. Although the roles of activated sludge components in the purification process have been studied quite well, their quantitative contribution to CO2 emissions is still unknown. The emission of CO2 caused by prokaryotes and eukaryotes over the course of a year (taking into account subsequent seasons) in model sequencing batch reactors (SBR) is presented in this study. In this work, for the first time, we aimed to quantify this contribution of eukaryotic organisms to total CO2 emissions during the WWTP process. It is of the order of several or more ppm. The contribution of CO2 produced by different components of activated sludge in WWTPs can improve estimation of the emissions of GHGs in this area of human activity.

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Sewer Mining as a Distributed Intervention for Water-Energy-Materials in the Circular Economy Suitable for Dense Urban Environments: A Real World Demonstration in the City of Athens

Water ◽

10.3390/w13192764 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (19) ◽

pp. 2764

Author(s):

Argyro Plevri ◽

Klio Monokrousou ◽

Christos Makropoulos ◽

Christos Lioumis ◽

Nikolaos Tazes ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Wastewater Treatment ◽

Circular Economy ◽

Water Reuse ◽

Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽

Treatment Plant ◽

Urban Environments ◽

Treated Wastewater ◽

Aquifer Recharge ◽

Treatment Unit ◽

Plant Nursery

Water reuse and recycling is gaining momentum as a way to improve the circularity of cities, while recognizing the central role of water within a circular economy (CE) context. However, such interventions often depend on the location of wastewater treatment plants and the treatment technologies installed in their premises, while relying on an expensive piped network to ensure that treated wastewater gets transported from the treatment plant to the point of demand. Thus, the penetration level of treated wastewater as a source of non-potable supply in dense urban environments is limited. This paper focuses on the demonstration of a sewer mining (SM) unit as a source of treated wastewater, as part of a larger and more holistic configuration that examines all three ‘streams’ associated with water in CE: water, energy and materials. The application area is the Athens Plant Nursery, in the (water stressed) city of Athens, Greece. SM technology is in fact a mobile wastewater treatment unit in containers able to extract wastewater from local sewers, treat it directly and reuse at the point of demand even in urban environments with limited space. The unit consists of a membrane bioreactor unit (MBR) and a UV disinfection unit and produces high quality reclaimed water for irrigation and also for aquifer recharge during the winter. Furthermore, a short overview of the integrated nutrient and energy recovery subsystem is presented in order to conceptualise the holistic approach and circularity of the whole configuration. The SM technology demonstrates flexibility, scalability and replicability, which are important characteristics for innovation uptake within the emerging CE context and market.

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Compact high-rate treatment of wastewater

Water Science & Technology Water Supply ◽

10.2166/ws.2004.0004 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 23-33

Author(s):

H. Ødegaard ◽

Z. Liao ◽

E. Melin ◽

H. Helness

Keyword(s):

Wastewater Treatment ◽

Treatment Process ◽

Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽

Primary Treatment ◽

Biofilm Reactor ◽

High Rate ◽

Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor ◽

Wastewater Treatment Process ◽

Direct Filtration ◽

Colloidal Matter

Many cities need to build compact wastewater treatment plants because of lack of land. This paper discusses compact treatment methods. An enhanced primary treatment process based on coarse media filtration is analysed. A high-rate secondary wastewater treatment process has specifically been investigated, consisting of a highly loaded moving bed biofilm reactor directly followed by a coagulation and floc separation step. The objective with this high-rate process is to meet secondary treatment effluent standards at a minimum use of chemicals, minimum sludge production and minimum footprint. It is demonstrated that the biofilm in the bioreactor mainly deals with the soluble organic matter while coagulation deals with the colloidal matter. The bioreactor may, therefore, be designed based on the soluble COD loading only, resulting in a very compact plant when a compact biomass/floc separation reactor (i.e. flotation or direct filtration) is used. The paper reports specifically on the coagulant choice in flotation and filter run time in direct filtration.

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Simultaneous Denitrification and Bio-Methanol Production for Sustainable Operation of Biogas Plants

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11236658 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (23) ◽

pp. 6658 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

I-Tae Kim

Keyword(s):

Wastewater Treatment ◽

Carbon Source ◽

Food Waste ◽

Treatment Process ◽

Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽

Treatment Efficiency ◽

Wastewater Treatment Process ◽

Methanol Production ◽

Sustainable Operation ◽

Biogas Plants

This study was conducted to secure the sustainability of biogas plants for generating resources from food waste (FW) leachates, which are prohibited from marine dumping and have been obligated to be completely treated on land since 2013 in South Korea. The aim of this study is to reduce the nitrogen load of the treatment process while producing bio-methanol using digested FW leachate diverted into wastewater treatment plants. By using biogas in conditions where methylobacter (M. marinus 88.2%) with strong tolerance to highly chlorinated FW leachate dominated, 3.82 mM of methanol production and 56.1% of total nitrogen (TN) removal were possible. Therefore, the proposed method can contribute to improving the treatment efficiency by accommodating twice the current carried-in FW leachate amount based on TN or by significantly reducing the nitrogen load in the subsequent wastewater treatment process. Moreover, the produced methanol can be an effective alternative for carbon source supply for denitrification in the subsequent process.

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