• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.349-357
• /
• 2007

Reports of endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs), pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs), and personal care products (PCPs) have raised substantial concern in important potable drinking water quality issues. Our study investigates the removal of EDCs, PhACs, and PCPs of 10 compounds having different physico-chemical properties (e.g., molecular weight, and octanol-water partition coefficient ($K_{OW}$)) by nanofiltration (NF) membranes. The rejection of micropollutants by NF membranes ranged from 93.9% to 99.9% depending on solute characteristics. A batch adsorption experiments indicated that adsorption is an important mechanism for transport/removal of relatively hydrophobic compounds, and is related to the octanol-water partition coefficient values. The transport phenomenon associated with adsorption may also depend on solution water chemistry such as pH and ionic strength influencing the pKa value of compounds. In addition, it was visually seen that the retention was somewhat higher for the larger compounds based on their molecular weight. These results suggest that the NF membrane retains many organic compounds due to both hydrophobic adsorption and size exclusion mechanisms.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.77-88
• /
• 2015

Soil column experiments were evaluated effects of silver nanoparticles (i.e., 0, 2.5, 5, and 10 mg/L) on the microbial viability which is strongly associated with the degradation of organic matter, pharmaceutically active compounds(PhACs) and biological oxidation of nitrogenous compounds during river bank filtration. The addition of silver nanoparticles resulted in almost no change in the aqueous matrix. However, the intact cell concentration decreased with addition of silver nanoparticles from 2.5 to 10 mg/L, which accounted for 76% to 82% reduction compared to that of control (silver nanoparticles free surface water). The decrease in adenosine triphosphate was more pronounced; thus, the number and active cells in aqueous phase were concurrently decreased with added silver nanoparticles. Based on the florescence excitation-emission matrix and liquid chromatograph - organic carbon detection analyses, it shows that the removal of protein-like substances was relatively higher than that of humic-like substances, and polysaccharide was substantially reduced. But the extent of those substances removed during soil passage was decreased with the increasing concentration of silver nanoparticles. The attenuation of ionic PhACs ranged from 55% to 80%, depending on the concentration of silver nanoparticles. The attenuation of neutral PhACs ranged between 72% and 77%, which was relatively lower than that observed for the ionic PhACs. The microbial viability was affected by silver nanoparticles, which also resulted in inhibition of nitrifiers.

• Advances in environmental research
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.1-17
• /
• 2020

Pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) have become an environmental havoc in last few decades with reported cases of antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs), lethal effects over aquatic organisms, interference in natural decomposition of organic matter, reduced diversity of microbial communities in different environmental compartments, inhibition of growth of microbes resulting in reduced rate of nutrient cycling, hormonal imbalance in exposed organisms etc. Owing to their potential towards bioaccumulation and persistent nature, these compounds have longer residence time and activity in environment. The conventional technologies of wastewater treatment have got poor efficiency towards removal/degradation of PhACs and therefore, modern techniques with efficient, cost-effective and environment-friendly operation need to be explored. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) like Photocatalysis, Fenton oxidation, Ozonation etc. are some of the promising, viable and sustainable options for degradation of PhACs. Although energy/chemical or both are essentially required for AOPs, these methods target complete degradation/mineralization of persistent pollutants resulting in no residual toxicity. Considering the high efficiency towards degradation, non-toxic nature, universal viability and acceptability, AOPs have become a promising option for effective treatment of chemicals with persistent nature.