title: Impact of biological filtrations for organic micropollutants and polyfluoroalkyl substances removal from secondary effluent.
abstract: The impact of biological activated carbon (BAC), sand filtration (SF) and biological aerated filter (BAF) for removal of the selected organic micropollutants and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) from secondary effluent was studied. BAC led to greater removal of dissolved organic carbon (43%) than BAF (30%) which in turn was greater than SF (24%). All biological filtration systems could effectively remove most of the selected organic micropollutants, and there was a greater removal of these micropollutants by BAC (76-98%) than BAF (70-92%) or SF (68-90%). It was found that all treatment was effective for removal of the hydrophobic (log D > 3.2) and readily biodegradable organic micropollutants. The major mechanism for the removal of these molecules was biodegradation by the micro-organism and sorption by the biofilm. Compared to organic micropollutants removal, there was a lower removal of PFASs by all treatments, and BAF and SF had a considerably lower removal than BAC treatment. The better removal for all molecule types by BAC was due to additional adsorption capacity by the activated carbon. This study demonstrated that the BAC process was most effective in removing organic micropollutants present in the secondary effluent.
authors.affiliation: a School of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering , RMIT University , Melbourne , Australia.
authors.forename: Biplob Kumar
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Pramanik
authors.affiliation: b Department of Civil Engineering , Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology , Dhaka , Bangladesh.
authors.forename: Sagor Kumar
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Pramanik
authors.affiliation: c Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment , Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia , Selangor , Malaysia.
authors.forename: Fatihah
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Suja
mesh_terms: D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D018441:Biofilms; D019149:Bioreactors / Q000382:microbiology*; D005374:Filtration / Q000379:methods*; D006845:Hydrocarbons, Fluorinated / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification*
chemical_list: D006845:Hydrocarbons, Fluorinated; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Biofilter; biodegradation; micropollutants; organics; perfluorinated substances; secondary effluent