Atrazine is a persistent organic pollutant and it has been widely used in agriculture and forestry in the world for more than fifty years. Atrazine shows ecotoxicity effects in aquatic ecosystems even at very low level concentrations with endocrine disruptor activity. Few studies were carried out on atrazine removal performances in drinking and waste-water by biological treatments, especially in membrane bio-reactors (MBRs). MBR technology might be more efficient than the conventional one in the removal of micro-pollutants. The fate of atrazine in wastewater treatment plants and its influence on the biomass activity was evaluated in this study. The experimental work was divided in three different phases: inhibition studies on different types of biomass (by means of microcalorimetry); adsorption studies on different sludges (conventional activated sludge (CAS) – and MBR) calculating adsorption isotherms and, finally, atrazine removal in an MBR pilot plant (simulating a treatment of atrazine and nitrate contaminated groundwater). The absence of significant inhibition was observed; higher atrazine adsorption on MBR sludge was detected for lower atrazine concentration (<50 µg L−1); the removal efficiency in the MBR pilot plant was lower than 25% but higher than the theoretical one (based on adsorption isotherms).
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Research Article|
April 01 2011
Adsorption and removal at low atrazine concentration in an MBR pilot plant Available to Purchase
G. Buttiglieri;
1Politecnico di Milano – DIIAR Environmental Engineering Section, P.za Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy
2ICRA (Catalan Institute for Water Research), Scientific and Technologic Park of the University of Girona, H2O Building, C/Emili Grahit 101, E-17003 Girona, Spain
E-mail: [email protected]
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L. Migliorisi;
L. Migliorisi
1Politecnico di Milano – DIIAR Environmental Engineering Section, P.za Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy
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F. Malpei
F. Malpei
1Politecnico di Milano – DIIAR Environmental Engineering Section, P.za Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy
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Water Sci Technol (2011) 63 (7): 1334–1340.
Citation
G. Buttiglieri, L. Migliorisi, F. Malpei; Adsorption and removal at low atrazine concentration in an MBR pilot plant. Water Sci Technol 1 April 2011; 63 (7): 1334–1340. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2011.130
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