TY - JOUR
T1 - Are pharmaceuticals removal and membrane fouling in electromembrane bioreactor affected by current density?
AU - Borea, L.
AU - Ensano, Benny Marie B.
AU - Hasan, Shadi Wajih
AU - Balakrishnan, Malini
AU - Belgiorno, Vincenzo
AU - de Luna, Mark Daniel G.
AU - Ballesteros, Florencio C.
AU - Naddeo, Vincenzo
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors are grateful to the Sanitary Environmental Engineering Division (SEED) Laboratory of University of Salerno for providing the facilities and research fund. The research activities were partially funded by the University of Salerno with the projects n. ORSA167105 and ORSA154525 and by the project n. IN17GR09/INT/Italy/P-17/2016 (SP) funded by Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. Research activities are also linked to the project n. EG16MO01 funded by Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation with Italian Ministry of Environment. We also highly acknowledge the University of the Philippines-Diliman and the Engineering Research and Development for Technology (ERDT) through the Department of Science and Technology, Philippines for the Ph.D. Scholarship Grant and Sandwich Program awarded to BMB Ensano. The authors gratefully thank SUEZ WTS Italy S.r.l. for donating the membrane modules used in the laboratory scale plant. The authors also deeply appreciate the following individuals who helped in the completion of the experiments: Anna Farina, Paolo Napodano, Emanuela Apolito, Raffaele Russo and Ilaria Masullo for the technical support they provided all throughout the experiment and prof. E. Reverchon and dr. M. Scognamiglio for their laboratory support in zeta potential and PSD analyses at the Laboratory of Chemical Engineering of Industrial Engineering Department in UNISA.
Funding Information:
The authors are grateful to the Sanitary Environmental Engineering Division (SEED) Laboratory of University of Salerno for providing the facilities and research fund. The research activities were partially funded by the University of Salerno with the projects n. ORSA167105 and ORSA154525 and by the project n. IN17GR09/INT/Italy/P-17/2016 (SP) funded by Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology , Government of India. Research activities are also linked to the project n. EG16MO01 funded by Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation with Italian Ministry of Environment . We also highly acknowledge the University of the Philippines-Diliman and the Engineering Research and Development for Technology (ERDT) through the Department of Science and Technology, Philippines for the Ph.D. Scholarship Grant and Sandwich Program awarded to BMB Ensano. The authors gratefully thank SUEZ WTS Italy S.r.l. for donating the membrane modules used in the laboratory scale plant. The authors also deeply appreciate the following individuals who helped in the completion of the experiments: Anna Farina, Paolo Napodano, Emanuela Apolito, Raffaele Russo and Ilaria Masullo for the technical support they provided all throughout the experiment and prof. E. Reverchon and dr. M. Scognamiglio for their laboratory support in zeta potential and PSD analyses at the Laboratory of Chemical Engineering of Industrial Engineering Department in UNISA.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2019/11/20
Y1 - 2019/11/20
N2 - Pharmaceutical active compounds (PhACs) have been detected at significant concentrations in various natural and artificial aquatic environments. In this study, electro membrane bioreactor (eMBR) technology was used to treat simulated municipal wastewater containing widely-used pharmaceuticals namely amoxicillin (AMX), diclofenac (DCF) and carbamazepine (CBZ). The effects of varying current density on the removal of PhACs (AMX, DCF and CBZ) and conventional pollutants (chemical oxygen demand (COD), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), humic substances, ammonia nitrogen (NH4-N), nitrate nitrogen (NO3-N) and orthophosphate (PO4-P) species) were examined. High COD and DOC removal efficiencies (~100%) were obtained in all the experimental runs regardless of applied current density. In contrast, enhanced removal efficiencies for AMX, DCF and CBZ were achieved at high current densities. Membrane fouling rate in eMBR with respect to conventional MBR was reduced by 24, 44 and 45% at current densities of 0.3, 0.5 and 1.15 mA/cm2, respectively. The mechanism for pharmaceutical removal in this study proceeded by: (1) charge neutralization between negatively-charged pharmaceutical compounds and positive electro-generated aluminium coagulants to form larger particles and (2) size exclusion by membrane filtration.
AB - Pharmaceutical active compounds (PhACs) have been detected at significant concentrations in various natural and artificial aquatic environments. In this study, electro membrane bioreactor (eMBR) technology was used to treat simulated municipal wastewater containing widely-used pharmaceuticals namely amoxicillin (AMX), diclofenac (DCF) and carbamazepine (CBZ). The effects of varying current density on the removal of PhACs (AMX, DCF and CBZ) and conventional pollutants (chemical oxygen demand (COD), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), humic substances, ammonia nitrogen (NH4-N), nitrate nitrogen (NO3-N) and orthophosphate (PO4-P) species) were examined. High COD and DOC removal efficiencies (~100%) were obtained in all the experimental runs regardless of applied current density. In contrast, enhanced removal efficiencies for AMX, DCF and CBZ were achieved at high current densities. Membrane fouling rate in eMBR with respect to conventional MBR was reduced by 24, 44 and 45% at current densities of 0.3, 0.5 and 1.15 mA/cm2, respectively. The mechanism for pharmaceutical removal in this study proceeded by: (1) charge neutralization between negatively-charged pharmaceutical compounds and positive electro-generated aluminium coagulants to form larger particles and (2) size exclusion by membrane filtration.
KW - Electro MBR
KW - Emerging contaminants
KW - Fouling control
KW - Pharmaceutical active compounds
KW - Wastewater treatment
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85069722937
U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.07.149
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.07.149
M3 - Article
C2 - 31539981
AN - SCOPUS:85069722937
SN - 0048-9697
VL - 692
SP - 732
EP - 740
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
ER -
