Harnessing biodegradation potential of rapid sand filtration for organic micropollutant removal from drinking water: A review

Figures & data

Figure 1. Summary of common pathways of OMPs circulation in water environment.

Figure 2. Overview of OMPs removal pathways in RSF. (a) Adsorption of OMPs onto sand granules. (b) Oxidation and adsorption of OMPs by iron/manganese oxides. (c) Biodegradation of OMPs by autotrophic bacteria (nitrifying and/or methanotrophic bacteria). (d) Biodegradation of OMPs by heterotrophic bacteria.

Table 1. OMPs removal by rapid sand filtration-based technology for drinking water production.

Scale	Filter material	Grain size (mm)	Water source	Contact time (min)	OMPs	Initial concentration (µg/L)	Removal efficiency (%)	Involved removal mechanism	References
Microcosm^a	Sand and gravel	3.0–5.0	Groundwater	—	Bentazone	1700–1800	53	Biodegradation by methanotrophic bacteria	Hedegaard et al. (2018)
	Sand	—	Surface water and groundwater	—	2,6-dichlorobenzamide (BAM)	100–200	34	Biodegradation by heterotrophic bacteria	Vandermaesen et al. (2016)
					2,6-dichlorobenzoic acid	100–200	63
	Sand	—	Surface water and groundwater	—	4-chloro-2-methylphenoxy acetic acid (MCPA)	100–200	57	Biodegradation by heterotrophic bacteria	Vandermaesen et al. (2019)
					Bentazone	100–200	31
					Isoproturon	100–200	49.8
					Endosulfan	100–200	39.7
					Carbofuran	100–200	62.2
					Linuron	100–200	17.4
					Atrazine	100–200	16.7
	Sand	3.0–5.0	Groundwater	—	Bentazone	1–8.3	92	Biodegradation by methanotrophic and heterotrophic bacteria	Hedegaard et al. (2019)
	Sand	0.8–1.2	Groundwater	—	Bentazone	0.1–2.4	13–35	Biodegradation^b	Hedegaard and Albrechtsen (2014)
					Mecoprop (MCPP)	0.03–0.38	42–85
					p-Nitrophenol	0.16	1–3
					Glyphosate	0.05	7–14
Column	Sand	0.83	Surface water	7.5–30	Microcystin-LR	20	100	Adsorption and biodegradation^b	Ho et al. (2006)
					Microcystin-LA	20	100
	Sand	0.5–2.5	Groundwater	16–48	para-toluenesulfonamide (p-TSA)	10	93	Biodegradation^b	Richter et al. (2008)
					ortho-toluenesulfonamide (o-TSA)	10	0
					benzenesulfonamide (BSA)	10	0
	Sand and Clay	0.8–1.6	Groundwater	1.37	Isoproturon	6.56	8.1	Biodegradation by methanotrophic bacteria	Papadopoulou et al. (2019)
					MCPA	4.44	9.9
					MCPP	3.98	11.3
					Chlorotoluron	3.7	0
					Bromoxynil	3.28	0
					Ioxynil	2.96	0
					Linuron	2.62	8.4
					Diuron	2.36	6.8
					BAM	2.1	0
	Sand and Clay	0.6–1.4	Groundwater	48–120	Phenazone	2.52	94	Biodegradation^b	Zuehlke et al. (2007)
					Propyphenazone	0.75	≥92
					1-acetyl-1-methyl-2-dimethyloxamoyl-2- phenylhydrazide (AMDOPH)	0.55	5
					1,5-dimethyl-1,2-dehydro-3-pyrazolone (DP)	0.44	52–77
					4-(2-methylethyl)-1,5-dimethyl-1,2- dehydro-3-pyrazolone (PDP)	0.08	82–91
					1-acetyl-1-methyl-2-phenylhydrazide (AMPH)	0.14	46
	sand	0.45	Surface water	7.9–15.8	Iopromide	0.556	3–13	Biodegradation^b	Zearley and Summers (2012)
					Chlorpyrifos	0.385	63–83
					Ethinyl estradiol	0.316	12–22
					Bisphenol A	0.311	64
					Acetaminophen	0.306	59–79
					Metolachlor	0.284	6.6–8.7
					Ibuprofen	0.276	>95
					Warfarin	0.268	39–68
					Acetochlor	0.266	8–17
					Clofibric acid	0.263	35–52
					Diclofenac	0.252	21–28
					Sulfamethoxazole	0.23	2.4–4.1
					Gemfibrozil	0.228	70–94
					Molinate	0.205	85–97
					Triclosan	0.19	>90
					Caffeine	0.188	67–80
					Methomyl	0.179	5.3–12
					Trimethoprim	0.175	83–92
					2,4-D	0.171	68–77
					Naproxen	0.17	72–86
					Tributyl phosphate	0.149	16–24
					Malaoxon	0.132	16–49
					Prometon	0.132	0–2.5
					Erythromycin	0.104	15–27
					Carbaryl	0.096	3.3–17
					Cotinine	0.092	23–39
					Diuron	0.092	0.3–7.8
					Carbamazepine	0.085	0.5–1.6
					2-methylisoborneol (MIB)	0.084	93–99
					Simazine	0.052	6.8–8.2
					Dimethoate	0.038	75–81
					Aldicarb	0.031	49–72
					Atrazine	0.009	0.2–3
					Diazinon	0.004	12–40
	Sand	0.8–1.4	Groundwater	34	BAM	0.2	75	Biodegradation by heterotrophic bacteria^d	Albers et al. (2015)
	Sand and porous stones	0.8–1.5	Groundwater	32–61	BAM	0.2	15–80	Biodegradation by heterotrophic bacteria^d	Horemans et al. (2017)
	Sand, Anthracite and GAC	0.5	Surface water	5.6	Geosmin	0.025–0.1	60	Biodegradation by heterotrophic bacteria^c	Elhadi et al. (2006)
					MIB	0.025–0.1	40
Field	Sand and Clay	1.6–2.55	Groundwater	30	Phenazone	2.8	89	Biodegradation^b	Zuehlke et al. (2007)
					Propyphenazone	0.88	>90
					AMDOPH	0.56	2
					DP	0.28	−257
					AMPH	0.14	14
					Acetoaminoantipyrine	0.12	>83
					PDP	0.07	−114
					Formylaminoantipyrine	0.05	—
					Demethylaminophenazone	—	—
	Sand	0.8–1.4	Groundwater	5	MCPP	1.0–1.2	17	Biodegradation by heterotrophic bacteria^e	Feld et al. (2016)
					4-chlorophenoxypropanoic acid	0.66–1.0	22
					(RS)-2-(2,4-dichlorophenoxy) propanoic acid	0.14–0.17	31
	Sand	1–7	Groundwater	8–63	MCPP	0.037	79–86	Adsorption and biodegradation^b	Hedegaard et al. (2014)

a The sand material applied in all the microcosm experiments were taken from their column RSF or selected field-scale RSF. Thus, these studies were considered relevant for this overview of RSF.

b The metabolic type of degrading bacteria have not been defined.

c Known geosmin and/or MIB degraders include Pseudomonas spp., Enterobacter spp., Bacillus cereus, Flavobacterium spp.

d The key heterotrophic bacteria is a specific BAM-degrading bacterium, Aminobacter sp. MSH.

e The representatives of involved heterotrophic bacteria are belonging to the Comamonadaceae and Sphingomonadales.

Figure 3. Overview of the categories of OMPs previously studied. (a) Compound type, (b) belonging to parent compound or transformation product (c) research scale. The detailed information of target OMPs is given in the supplementary information (Table S1).

Figure 4. Overview of technical solutions for improving OMPs removal in RSF.

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