🌍💼Why is the quaternary treatment process necessary in conventional wastewater treatment if the wastewater contains emerging or micropollu...
Published on by Hossein Ataei Far, Deputy Manager of the Research, Technology Development, and Industry Relations Center at NWWEC
🌍Micropollutants (MPs) are substances present in water at very low concentrations that can cause harmful effects. Only a small number of MPs are regulated; most are not monitored or controlled.
🔎Conventional wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are unable to effectively remove many MPs found in wastewater.
🔎 A testing protocol of 12 indicator MPs has been developed to monitor removal efficiency in WWTPs.
🔎The EU is proposing updates to the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive to address MPs and other emerging challenges.
🔎EU regulations set requirements for treated wastewater quality discharged from WWTPs but don't address MPs.
🔎 New treatment systems are being implemented and regulations updated to address this issue. WWTP effluents are controlled using a combination of emission limit values, load reduction, and environmental quality standards.
🔎To comply with these requirements for improving the
removal of organic micropollutants (OMPs), conventional WWTPs must be upgraded to additionally treat WWTP effluent by combining other tertiary treatment technologies such as adsorption with activated carbon (AC) and oxidation with ozone.
🔎Both adsorption using AC and ozone-based oxidation processes effectively treat various OMPs and are regarded as promising tertiary treatment processes with acceptable operating costs.
🔎Granular activated carbon (GAC) filtration has recently been applied to a full-scale WWTP in Germany for improved removal of OMPs.
🔎In addition to these recently introduced tertiary treatments, it is necessary to optimize secondary treatment processes since
biological treatment plays a large role in the overall removal of OMPs in WWTPs. The type of secondary treatment process can determine the fate and removal of OMPs during treatment, affecting the implementation of the subsequent tertiary treatment for OMP removal
🔎To cover the costs of treatment, a system called
extended producer responsibility (EPR) would be established, focusing on pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.
🌍In summary, conventional WWTPs do not effectively remove any micropollutants, allowing them to enter surface waters. To tackle this issue, new treatment systems are being implemented and regulations are being updated.
References:
1- Rogowska, J.,et al., 2020.
2- Choi, S., et al., 2022.
3- Corominas et al., 2013
4- Bourgin et al.,2018
5- Luo andet al., 2014.
6- Kosek et al., 2020.
7- Rahman et al., 2018.
8- Benstoem et al., 2017.
9- Bourgin et al.,2018.
10- Choi, S. et al., 2022.
11- https://lnkd.in/ehGbcC_5
#emergingcontaminants #micropollutant #quaternarytreatment
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