Studying the enhancement of the removal of OMPs from wastewater by adding powder activated carbon in an MBR

University of Ferrara (UNIFE), Italy

1. University of Ferrara (UNIFE), Italy

2. Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology (FKIT), Zagreb, Croatia

Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) are considered an effective biological and physical barrier in the wastewater treatment process. Their performance is strictly correlated to operational conditions (SRT, HRT, reactor configuration, redox, T), but even by optimizing them, a complete removal of OMPs is not achievable due to the wide spectrum of chemical and physical characteristics of the OMPs. The core of this project will be the development of a hybrid system that is of an enhanced bioreactor, obtained by adding powder activated carbon (PAC) in an MBR to also favour sorption process for the removal of OMPs from wastewater (mainly pharmaceuticals).The project will investigate the effect of different dosages of PAC on the removal of the selection of OMPs, the global removal efficiency for the selected compounds by using a pilot-scale hybrid MBR fed with real wastewater and a full-scale MBR fed with hospital wastewater (= the full scale MBR treating the effluent of the large hospital of the town). The degradation pathways of the selected OMPs will be studied and a mass balance will point out the main removal mechanisms occurring for the selected compounds. An evaluation of the technical feasibility of the proposed treatment system and an economic analysis will complete the investigation.

Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology (FKIT), Zagreb, Croatia – 12 months