Assessment of toxicity and biodegradability on activated sludge of priority and emerging pollutants
Entity
UAM. Departamento de Química Física AplicadaPublisher
Taylor and Francis Ltd.Date
2016-03-18Citation
10.1080/09593330.2015.1079264
Environmental Technology (United Kingdom) 37.6 (2016): 713-721
ISSN
0959-3330 (print)DOI
10.1080/09593330.2015.1079264Funded by
This work was financially supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad through the project CTM2013-43803-PProject
Gobierno de España. CTM2013-43803-PEditor's Version
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09593330.2015.1079264Subjects
Activated sludge; Biodegradability; Priority and emerging pollutants; Toxicity; Wastewater; QuímicaRights
© 2015 Taylor & FrancisAbstract
Several methods for evaluating the toxicity and biodegradability of hazardous pollutants (chlorinated compounds, chemical additives and pharmaceuticals) have been studied in this work. Different bioassays using representative bacteria of marine and terrestrial ecosystems such as Vibrio fischeri and Pseudomonas putida have been used to assess the ecotoxicity. Activated sludge was used to analyse the effect of those pollutants in a biological reactor of a sewage treatment plant (STP). The results demonstrate that none of the compounds is toxic to activated sludge, except ofloxacin to P. putida. The additives tested can be considered moderately toxic according to the more sensitive V. fischeri assays, whereas the EC50 values of the pharmaceuticals depend on the specific microorganism used in each test. Regarding the biodegradability, respirometric measurements were carried out for fast biodegradability assessment and the Zahn-Wellens test for inherent biodegradability. The evolution of the specific oxygen uptake rate (SOUR) showed that only diethyl phthalate was easily biodegradable and acetylsalicylic acid was partially biodegradable (98% and 65% degradation, respectively). The persistence of dichloromethane, ofloxacin and hidrochlorothiazide was confirmed along the 28 days of the Zahn-Wellens test whereas 1,1,1-trichloroethane showed inherent biodegradability (74% removal). Most of the chlorinated compounds, pharmaceuticals, bisphenol A and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid were partially degraded in 28 d with total organic carbon (TOC) reduction ranging from 21% to 51%. Sulphamethoxazole showed certain biodegradation (50% removal) with TOC decrease around 31%, which indicates the formation of non-biodegradable by-products
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Google Scholar:Tobajas Vizcaíno, Montserrat
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Verdugo, V.
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Polo Díez, Alicia Marta
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Rodríguez Jiménez, Juan José
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Fernández Mohedano, Ángel
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