Assessing the potential of a membrane bioreactor and granular activated carbon process for wastewater reuse - A full-scale WWTP operated over one year in Scania, Sweden - PubMed (original) (raw)

. 2023 Oct 15:895:165185.

doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.165185. Epub 2023 Jun 28.

Affiliations

Free article

Assessing the potential of a membrane bioreactor and granular activated carbon process for wastewater reuse - A full-scale WWTP operated over one year in Scania, Sweden

Maria Takman et al. Sci Total Environ. 2023.

Free article

Abstract

A full-scale membrane bioreactor (MBR) with ultrafiltration, followed by granular activated carbon (GAC), was examined to determine the potential of reusing treated water as a source of drinking water or for irrigation. The major part of the bacteria removal took place in the MBR, whereas the GAC removed substantial amounts of organic micropollutants. Annual variations in inflow and infiltration resulted in a concentrated influent during summer and a diluted influent in the winter. The removal of E. coli was high throughout the process (average log removal 5.8), with effluent concentrations meeting the threshold for class B water standards for irrigation (EU 2020/741) but exceeding those for drinking water in Sweden. The total bacterial concentration increased over the GAC, indicating the growth and release of bacteria; however, E. coli concentrations declined. The effluent concentrations of metals met the Swedish criteria for drinking water. The removal of organic micropollutants decreased during the initial operation of the treatment plant, but after 1 year and 3 months, corresponding to 15,000 bed volumes, the removal increased. Maturation of the biofilm in the GAC filters might have resulted in biodegradation of certain organic micropollutants, in combination with bioregeneration. Although there is no legislation in Scandinavia with regard to many organic micropollutants in drinking water and water for irrigation, the effluent concentrations were generally in the same order of magnitude as to those in Swedish source waters that are used for drinking water production.

Keywords: 16S rRNA gene sequencing; Bacteria; Metals; Organic micropollutants; Water reclamation.

Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Similar articles

Cited by

MeSH terms

Substances

LinkOut - more resources