Removal of steroid estrogens from municipal wastewater in a pilot scale expanded granular sludge blanket reactor and anaerobic membrane bioreactor

Figures & data

Table 1. Operating conditions and treatment performance (average values) of the anaerobic EGSB reactor and MBR pilot scale reactor.

	EGSB		anMBR
	Fortified (0.8 days HRT)	Unfortified (0.2 days HRT)	Unfortified (0.4 days HRT)	(0.7 days HRT)
Reactor volume (l)	43			1200
Flow rate (l d^−1)	52.4	216	108	1800
HRT (h)	19.4	4.8	9.6	15.8
BOD (mg l^−1) influent	1303	247	215	178
BOD (mg l^−1) effluent	607	94	69	13
BOD removal (%)	55	61	66	91
tCOD (mg l^−1) influent	1790	414	351	336
tCOD (mg l^−1) effluent	769	161	127	74
tCOD influent load (kg m^−3 d^−1)	2.2	2.1	0.9	0.5
tCOD removal (%)	51	58	62	78
TSS (mg l^−1) crude influent	1431	144	125	127
TSS (mg l^−1) effluent	279	44	27	–
TSS removal (%)	80	65	78	–

Table 2. Removal of steroid estrogens from fortified (0.8 days HRT), an unfortified crude wastewater (0.2 and 0.4 days HRT) and an anaerobic MBR (0.7 days HRT).

		EGSB unfortified (0.2 days HRT)			EGSB fortified (0.8 days HRT)			EGSB unfortified (0.4 days HRT)				anMBR (0.7 days HRT)
Compound	Day	Influent	Effluent	% removal	Influent	Effluent	% removal	Day	Influent	Effluent	% removal	Influent	Effluent	% removal
E1 (ng l^−1)	1	65	19	71	33	13	61	1	41	15	63	41	51	21
	5	36	26	28	28	22	21	5	36	10	72	36	0	100
	10	46	17	63	37	19	49	10	60	28	53	60	7.7	83
	15	16	15	8.5	34	18	47	15	39	16	59	39	7.2	56
	20	7.5	6.9	8.1	41	38	7.3	20	14	3.3	76	14	8.2	−9.2
Average				36%			37%				65%			58%
E2 (ng l^−1)	1	11	11	0	7.5	2	73	1	22	6	73	22	0.5	95
	5	0.8	0.1	86	10	2	80	5	13	3.5	73	13	0.7	15
	10	4.6	1.7	63	8	3	63	10	17	5.4	68	17	0.9	81
	15	14	8.1	40	12	4	71	15	12	5.1	57	12	0.1	99
	20	2.8	2.8	0	15	4	77	20	9.7	3.3	65	9.7	0.1	96
Average				63%			73%				67%			77%
E3 (ng l^−1)	1	45	31	31	52	37	29	1	57	31	46	57	28	38
	5	65	11	83	68	24	65	5	61	10	84	61	36	45
	10	53	14	73	47	24	49	10	56	19	65	56	0.9	98
	15	68	26	62	61	58	5	15	42	22	48	42	36	48
	20	60	7.8	87	60	30	50	20	70	21	70	70	17	72
Average				67%			40%				63%			60%
E1-3S (ng l^−1)	1	43	5	88	62	10	85	1	38	1.3	97	38	0.5	99
	5	30	3	90	63	2	97	5	39	0.4	99	39	0.7	98
	10	41	2.4	94	47	3	94	10	41	3.8	91	41	3.6	91
	15	38	0.9	98	39	11	73	15	30	1.8	94	30	3.3	91
	20	30	1.4	95	33	6	81	20	35	0	100	35	0.8	97
Average				93%			86%				96%			95%