Abstract

Conventional wastewater treatments are inefficient in the removal of many organic pollutants. The presence of these contaminants in the final sludge represents a source of environmental pollution due to the increasing use of biosolids in land application. A biotechnological approach which employed the fungus Trametes versicolor in a sludge-bioslurry reactor was assessed in order to remove several groups of emerging pollutants. Biological fungal activity was monitored by means of ergosterol and laccase determinations. Fifteen out of 24 detected pharmaceuticals were removed at efficiencies over 50% after the treatment, including eight completely degraded. Removal ranged between 16-53% and 22-100% for the brominated flame retardants and the UV-filters, respectively. Only two of all the detected compounds remained unchanged after the treatment. Although elimination results are promising, the toxicity of the final sludge increased after the treatment. This finding is contrary to the toxicity results obtained in similar treatments of sludge with T. versicolor in solid-phase. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Sewage sludge; Trametes versicolor; Degradation; Emerging pollutants; Bioslurry

Published in

Journal of Hazardous Materials
2012, Volume: 233, pages: 235-243
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

UKÄ Subject classification

Analytical Chemistry


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2012.07.024

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/87440