Endocrine disruptors compounds, pharmaceuticals and personal care products in urban wastewater: implications for agricultural reuse and their removal by adsorption process

Abstract

In the last years, a lot of emerging contaminants, such as, endocrine disruptors compounds (EDCs), pharmaceuticals, and personal care products (PPCPs) have been detected in wastewater. Because of their toxicity and possible adverse effects on the environment and humans, their release from urban wastewater treatment plants (UWWTPs) effluents should be minimized, particularly when a wastewater reuse for crops irrigation is expected. Many processes have been investigated for advanced treatment of UWWTP effluents as well as for emerging contaminant degradation; among these, adsorption process was successfully used to remove EDCs and PPCPs from wastewater. This article shortly reviews EDCs and PPCPs removal from UWWTP effluents by adsorption process using conventional and non-conventional adsorbents. The fate of EDCs and PPCPs in UWWTPs and the implications for agricultural wastewater reuse has been addressed too. In spite of the adsorption process looking to be a valuable alternative to other advanced technologies for the removal of emerging contaminants from wastewater, some gaps still remain to evaluate the actual feasibility at full scale. However, according to a few studies available in scientific literature on the use of both powdered activated carbon and granular activated carbon at full scale, adsorption process by activated carbon is a promising, potentially effective, and economically feasible solution for producing safe wastewater for agricultural reuse.

Wastewater Reuse in Agriculture: A Review about Its Limitations and Benefits

“…Groundwater contamination by ECs may occur as a result of landfill leachate, the leakage of manure containers or from spray irrigation with treated or untreated wastewater on agricultural land [66].…”

Removal of diclofenac from aqueous solution with multi-walled carbon nanotubes modified by nitric acid

“…PPCPs are widespread in prescriptions, over-the-counter drugs, spices, cosmetics and daily care products [3,4], but most conventional wastewater treatment processes are not designed for removing these micro-organic pollutants. Some chemicals, including hormone, antimicrobial agents, moschus, and fire retarding agents, have been detected in nearly every water environment [5].…”

Investigation on the montmorillonite adsorption of biocidal compounds incorporating thermodynamical-based multicomponent adsorption isotherm

“…Several processes have been proposed to remove those micropollutants such as UV/TiO 2 photocatalysis [7,10], membrane bioreactor [11], chemical oxidation [12], chlorination [9,13], ozonisation [12,14], and activated carbon adsorption [14][15]. Amongst those processes, adsorption shows a promising prospect in removal efficiency and cost feasibility.…”