Abstract
Wastewater treatment by deactivated and activated sludge was investigated to evaluate the removal of estrogens [estrone (E1), 17β-estradiol (E2), 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2)] via adsorption and degradation. Different treatment conditions were used, including three mixed liquor volatile suspended solid (MLVSS) concentrations, three methanol concentrations (carbon source) and three types of aqueous media (water, synthetic solution, and supernatant). The E2 was degraded the fastest by the bacterial community. In all cases the removal rate increased when the initial MLVSS and methanol concentrations increased and when the macro- and micronutrients were present in the solution. In the experiments with deactivated sludge, the synthetic compound EE2 was more easily removed via sorption. The bacterial communities of the activated sludge were studied, which indicated a similarity of more than 75% between the different samples. A similarity of only 50% was found between the activated and deactivated sludges.
Keywords
Activated sludge; Estrogen removal; Bacterial community structure; E1; E2; EE2
