title: Advancing Biological Wastewater Treatment: Extended Anaerobic Conditions Enhance the Removal of Endocrine and Dioxin-like Activities.
abstract: Conventional activated sludge treatment of wastewater does not completely remove micropollutants. Here, extending anaerobic conditions may enhance biodegradation. To explore this, we combined iron-reducing or substrate-limiting and aerobic pilot-scale reactors directly at a wastewater treatment plant. To assess the removal of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) as group of micropollutants that adversely affects wildlife, we applied a bioanalytical approach. We used in vitro bioassays covering seven receptor-mediated mechanisms of action, including (anti)androgenicity, (anti)estrogenicity, retinoid-like, and dioxin-like activity. Untreated wastewater induced antiandrogenic, estrogenic, antiestrogenic, and retinoid-like activity. Full-scale as well as reactor-scale activated sludge treatment effectively removes the observed effects. Nevertheless, high antiandrogenic and minor dioxin-like and estrogenic effects persisted in the treated effluent that may still be environmentally relevant. The anaerobic post-treatment under substrate-limiting conditions resulted in an additional removal of endocrine activities by 17-40%. The anaerobic pre-treatment under iron-reducing conditions significantly enhanced the removal of the residual effects by 40-75%. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that a further optimization of biological wastewater treatment is possible. Here, implementing iron-reducing anaerobic conditions preceding aerobic treatment appears promising to improve the removal of receptor-mediated toxicity.
authors: Goethe University Frankfurt am Main , Department Aquatic Ecotoxicology, Max-von-Laue-Str. 13, 60438 Frankfurt, Germany.
authors: Johannes
authors: J
authors: Völker
authors: Federal Institute of Hydrology , Am Mainzer Tor 1, D-56068 Koblenz, Germany.
authors: Sandro
authors: S
authors: Castronovo
authors: Federal Institute of Hydrology , Am Mainzer Tor 1, D-56068 Koblenz, Germany.
authors: Arne
authors: A
authors: Wick
authors: Federal Institute of Hydrology , Am Mainzer Tor 1, D-56068 Koblenz, Germany.
authors: Thomas A
authors: TA
authors: Ternes
authors: Eawag: Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology , Überlandstrasse 133, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland.
authors: Adriano
authors: A
authors: Joss
authors: Goethe University Frankfurt am Main , Department Aquatic Ecotoxicology, Max-von-Laue-Str. 13, 60438 Frankfurt, Germany.
authors: Jörg
authors: J
authors: Oehlmann
authors: Goethe University Frankfurt am Main , Department Aquatic Ecotoxicology, Max-von-Laue-Str. 13, 60438 Frankfurt, Germany.
authors: Martin
authors: M
authors: Wagner
mesh_terms: D004147:Dioxins; D012722:Sewage; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid; D062065:Wastewater; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
chemical_list: D004147:Dioxins; D012722:Sewage; D062065:Wastewater; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical