Biofiltration as pre-treatment for removal of atrazine, simazine, 17β-estradiol, diclofenac and microcystin-LR contaminants

Abstract

The increase in polluting contaminants in the environment, due to agriculture, industrial activities, and urban population growth, has contributed to the introduction of new compounds in water sources that are not efficiently removed by conventional water treatment techniques, requiring complementary studies regarding the application of alternative techniques, such as biofiltration, which uses biological activity for biodegradation of contaminants associated with granular media filtration. Thus, the objective of this work was to evaluate the efficiency of different conceptions of biofiltration, on a bench scale, concerning the removal of atrazine (ATZ), simazine (SMZ), 17β-estradiol (E2), diclofenac (DCF), and microcystin-LR (MC-LR) using as granular media fast-sand filter (FSF), slow-sand filter (SSF), and granular activated carbon (GAC) for drinking water pre-treatment. Among granular media, the filter with CAG showed better performance stability concerning contaminants removal, with median removal values ranging from 95,8% for ATZ, 81,0% for SMZ, 89,0% for E2, 97,2% for DCF and 93,4% for MC-LR. The efficiencies obtained prove the potential of the application of biofiltration as a pre-treatment of drinking water.

Keywords:
emerging contaminants; specific biological activation; Sphingosinicella microcystinivorans — B9