Can high rate algal ponds be used as post-treatment of UASB reactors to remove micropollutants?

Behavior of UV Filters, UV Blockers and Pharmaceuticals in High Rate Algal Ponds Treating Urban Wastewater

“…Several recent studies have demonstrated the efficiency of HRAPs in terms of nutrients, organic matter and pathogens elimination [10][11][12]. The mechanisms to eliminate these pollutants in HRAPs are similar to those occurring in stabilization ponds.…”

“…Similarly, naproxen was only moderately removed (45% on average), with RE% ranging from −3% to 100%. Díaz-Garduño et al [47] reported RE% in the range of 0-35% in laboratory-scale reactors; Vassalle et al [11] obtained a RE% of 54% in a pilot HRAP (205 L) operating with a HRT of 8 days, and Matamoros et al [17] obtained removals in the range 60-90%, with better efficiencies during the warm season and with longer HRTs (8 vs. 4 days).…”

“…Currently, these systems are being intensively investigated regarding their capacity to eliminate organic micropollutants such as pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), obtaining promising results [11,16,17]. PPCPs comprise a broad number and variety of compounds, which are neither routinely monitored in wastewaters, nor regulated [18,19].…”

“…Based on these gaps in the literature and knowing that the main entrance pathway of PPCPs in the aquatic environment are WWTP effluents, the need to find alternative and more efficient treatments is evident. Within this context, HRAPs are gaining a renewed popularity due to their demonstrated high efficiency treating wastewater [10][11][12] within a more sustainable frame than activated sludge treatments. Efficient removal of different PPCPs such as hormones, anti-inflammatories and other pharmaceuticals in HRAPs has recently been demonstrated [11,16], yet the number of studies on the removal capacity of microalgae-based systems against these organic contaminants is scarce, especially in real scale systems.…”

Current advances in microalgae-based treatment of high-strength wastewaters: challenges and opportunities to enhance wastewater treatment performance

“…Biological P removal depends on both the microalgae concentration and the amount of P accumulated in the biomass, which can be increased from the typical 1% up to 3.2% (Powell et al 2008(Powell et al , 2009. Microalgae-based technologies can also remove cations and heavy metals with efficiencies of up to 99% Guieysse 2006) (Muñoz &Guieysse, 2006), in some cases up to 6 logs of coliforms and E. Coli (Mohammed et al 2014;Fallowfield et al 2018;Torres Franco et al 2018), and several micropollutants (Vassalle et al 2020b).…”