Disinfection of treated urban effluents for reuse by combination of coagulation/flocculation and Fenton processes

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2023

Authors

João P. F. Venâncio (Author) Other; Sara Ribeirinho Soares (Author) Other; Luísa C. Lopes (Author) Other; Luís Madeira (Author) FEUP; Olga C. Nunes (Author) FEUP; Carmen Rodrigues (Author) FEUP

Journal

Title: Environmental Research

Vol. 218

Pages: 1-12

ISSN: 0013-9351

Publisher: Elsevier

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 0 Citations

Scopus - 0 Citations

Associated Projects

LEPABE - Financiamento Plurianual 2020-2023 da Unidade de I&D LEPABE - Laboratório de Engenharia de Processos, Ambiente, Biotecnologia e Energia

ALiCE - ALiCE - Laboratório Associado em Engenharia Química

Healthy Waters - Healthy Waters - Identification, Elimination, Social Awareness and Education of Water Chemical and Biological Micropollutants with Health and Environmental Implications

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00Y-5E6

DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.115028

Abstract (EN): In this study, a combination of coagulation/flocculation and Fenton processes was studied as tertiary treatment in order to generate treated water susceptible to reuse. The combination of both processes has never been applied in disinfection of real urban wastewater. The best removals of turbidity and enterobacteria were achieved when applying a coagulant (FeCl3) dosage of 120 mg/L and the natural pH of the effluent (7.14). The following Fenton reaction presented the maximal enterobacteria inactivation after 120 min at 25 °C, when using hydrogen peroxide and added iron concentrations of 100 mg/L and 7 mg/L, respectively. The abundance of antibiotic resistant (amoxicillin and sulfamethoxazole) enterobacteria and total enterobacteria, enterococci, and heterotrophs, and antibiotic resistance genes - ARG - (sul1, blaTEM and qnrS) was evaluated before and after each step of the treatment. Values below 10 CFU/100 mL were achieved for total and resistant cultivable enterobacteria immediately after treatment and after storage for 72 h, therefore meeting the strictest limit imposed for E. coli. Physico-chemical parameters also met the established limits for water reuse. Despite harbouring a rich and diverse bacterial community, the final stored disinfected wastewater contained high relative abundance of potentially hazardous bacteria. Such results point out the need of a deep microbiological characterization of treated wastewater to evaluate the risk of its reuse in irrigation.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 12