| Abstract | Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are known sources of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) spreading into the environment, as well as, of unpleasant odors. CECs represent a potential hazard for human health and the environment being pharmaceutical or biologically active compounds and they are acquiring relevance in European directives. Similarly, the public concern about odour emissions from WWTPs is also increasing due to the decreasing distance between WWTP and residential areas. This study focuses on the effectiveness of the recently developed MULESL technology (MUch LEss SLudge; WO2019097463) in removing CECs and limiting odour emissions from WWTPs. MULESL technology has been developed for its ability to reduce up to 80% the sludge production from WWTPs. However, it is ought to evaluate if the benefits coming from sludge production reduction do not invalidate CECs removal or negatively affect odour emissions. Thus, the performances of a MULESL and a conventional WWTP (flow rate of 375 m/d and 3600 m/d, respectively) were compared while treating the same municipal sewage. Whereas both plants succeeded in removing the traditional gross parameters characterizing wastewaters (e.g. chemical oxygen demand, nitrogen), the MULESL was much more effective than the conventional one in terms of CECs removal for about 60% of the identified compounds showing, however, the same or lower effectiveness for about 30% and 10% of them, respectively. This result was attributed to the high sludge retention time and biomass concentration in the MULESL (enabling enrichment of slow growing microorganisms and forcing biomass to use unusual substrates, respectively), and to the biomass feature to grow in the form of biofilm and granules (favoring micropollutants absorption on biomass). Furthermore, odour impact analysis has shown that the MULESL was characterized by a much lower impact, i.e. 45% lower than that of primary and secondary treatments of the conventional WWTP. |
| Text | 458555 2022 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149966 Scopus 2 s2.0 85114352206 Activated sludge MULESL Municipal sewage Sludge minimization Contaminants of emerging concern Odour emissions An innovative biofilter technology for reducing environmental spreading of emerging pollutants and odour emissions during municipal sewage treatment De Sanctis M.; Murgolo S.; Altieri V.G.; De Gennaro L.; Amodio M.; Mascolo G.; Di Iaconi C. Water Research Institute, C.N.R, Viale F. De Blasio 5, Bari, 70132, Water Research Institute, C.N.R, Viale F. De Blasio 5, 70132 Bari, Italy, , , Italy; Water Research Institute, C.N.R, Viale F. De Blasio 5, Bari, 70132, Water Research Institute, C.N.R, Viale F. De Blasio 5, 70132 Bari, Italy, , , Italy; LEnviroS srl, spin off of University of Bari, Via degli antichi pastifici 8/B, Molfetta, Bari, IT 70056, LEnviroS srl, spin off of University of Bari, Via degli antichi pastifici 8/B, IT 70056 Molfetta, Bari, Italy, , Italy Wastewater treatment plants WWTPs are known sources of contaminants of emerging concern CECs spreading into the environment, as well as, of unpleasant odors. CECs represent a potential hazard for human health and the environment being pharmaceutical or biologically active compounds and they are acquiring relevance in European directives. Similarly, the public concern about odour emissions from WWTPs is also increasing due to the decreasing distance between WWTP and residential areas. This study focuses on the effectiveness of the recently developed MULESL technology MUch LEss SLudge; WO2019097463 in removing CECs and limiting odour emissions from WWTPs. MULESL technology has been developed for its ability to reduce up to 80% the sludge production from WWTPs. However, it is ought to evaluate if the benefits coming from sludge production reduction do not invalidate CECs removal or negatively affect odour emissions. Thus, the performances of a MULESL and a conventional WWTP flow rate of 375 m/d and 3600 m/d, respectively were compared while treating the same municipal sewage. Whereas both plants succeeded in removing the traditional gross parameters characterizing wastewaters e.g. chemical oxygen demand, nitrogen , the MULESL was much more effective than the conventional one in terms of CECs removal for about 60% of the identified compounds showing, however, the same or lower effectiveness for about 30% and 10% of them, respectively. This result was attributed to the high sludge retention time and biomass concentration in the MULESL enabling enrichment of slow growing microorganisms and forcing biomass to use unusual substrates, respectively , and to the biomass feature to grow in the form of biofilm and granules favoring micropollutants absorption on biomass . Furthermore, odour impact analysis has shown that the MULESL was characterized by a much lower impact, i.e. 45% lower than that of primary and secondary treatments of the conventional WWTP. 803 Published version http //www.scopus.com/record/display.url eid=2 s2.0 85114352206 origin=inward An innovative biofilter technology for reducing environmental spreading of emerging pollutants and odour emissions during municipal sewage treatment Articolo pubblicato De Sanctis et al. 2022_STOTEN.pdf Articolo in rivista Elsevier 0048 9697 Science of the total environment Science of the total environment Sci. total environ. ALTIERI VALERIO GUIDO claudio.diiaconi DI IACONI CLAUDIO marco.desanctis DE SANCTIS MARCO sapia.murgolo MURGOLO SAPIA giuseppe.mascolo MASCOLO GIUSEPPE |
