ENGINEERED ACTIVATED CARBONS FOR IMPROVED RECALCITRANT PHARMACEUTICALS REMOVAL DURING URBAN WASTEWATER TREATMENT:LIFE IMPETUS PROJECT

摘要

The improvement of pharmaceutical compounds(PhCs)removal during wastewater treatment is the smartest option to avoid their release into the environment,since conventional treatments fail to control several PhCs that end up in recipient water bodies.LIFE Impetus project(LIFE 14 ENV/PT/000739)aims to tackle this problem by developing and testing novel powdered activated carbons(PACs)for improved control of PhCs in urban wastewater treatment plants(WWTPs)with conventional activated sludge(CAS)treatment.PAC adsorption is one of the best available technologies for PhC control,yet its cost-efficiency and sustainability calls for environmental-friendly PACs and process design in a circular economy framework.Novel PACs were prepared using locally available biomass-pine nut production residues-and were benchmarked against commercially available products for the adsorption of a short-list of representative PhCs spiked in synthetic inorganic matrix(single-solute conditions)and in real wastewater(competitive conditions)from a WWTP.The target PhCs were selected considering their worldwide occurrence and persistence in CAS-WWTP effluents,results validated in the two LIFE Impetus case study plants,and diversity in adsorption key-properties:sulfamethoxazole/SMX(anionic,hydrophilic),diclofenac/DCF(anionic,relatively hydrophobic)and carbamazepine/CBZ(neutral,hydrophobic).