Department of Civil Engineering, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II 132, 84084 Fisciano, SA, Italy.
Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), Emili Grahit 101, 17003 Girona, Spain; Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Passeig Lluís Companys 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain.
Sci Total Environ. 2020 Mar 25;710:136312. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.136312. Epub 2019 Dec 30.
Conventional urban wastewater treatment plants (UWTPs) are poorly effective in the removal of most contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), including antibiotics, antibiotic resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes (ARB&ARGs). These contaminants result in some concern for the environment and human health, in particular if UWTPs effluents are reused for crop irrigation. Recently, stakeholders' interest further increased in Europe, because the European Commission is currently developing a regulation on water reuse. Likely, conventional UWTPs will require additional advanced treatment steps to meet water quality limits yet to be officially established for wastewater reuse. Even though it seems that CECs will not be included in the proposed regulation, the aim of this paper is to provide a technical contribution to this discussion as well as to support stakeholders by recommending possible advanced treatment options, in particular with regard to the removal of CECs and ARB&ARGs. Taking into account the current knowledge and the precautionary principle, any new or revised water-related Directive should address such contaminants. Hence, this review paper gathers the efforts of a group of international experts, members of the NEREUS COST Action ES1403, who for three years have been constructively discussing the efficiency of the best available technologies (BATs) for urban wastewater treatment to abate CECs and ARB&ARGs. In particular, ozonation, activated carbon adsorption, chemical disinfectants, UV radiation, advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) and membrane filtration are discussed with regard to their capability to effectively remove CECs and ARB&ARGs, as well as their advantages and drawbacks. Moreover, a comparison among the above-mentioned processes is performed for CECs relevant for crop uptake. Finally, possible treatment trains including the above-discussed BATs are discussed, issuing end-use specific recommendations which will be useful to UWTPs managers to select the most suitable options to be implemented at their own facilities to successfully address wastewater reuse challenges.
传统的城市污水处理厂（UWTP）在去除大多数新兴关注污染物（CECs）方面效果不佳，包括抗生素、抗药性细菌和抗生素抗性基因（ARB&ARGs）。这些污染物对环境和人类健康造成了一些关注，特别是如果 UWTP 废水被再用于灌溉作物。最近，欧洲的利益相关者对此表现出了更大的兴趣，因为欧盟委员会目前正在制定一项关于水再利用的法规。很可能，传统的 UWTP 将需要额外的先进处理步骤，以满足尚未为废水再利用正式确立的水质限制。尽管似乎 CECs 不会被纳入拟议的法规，但本文的目的是为这一讨论提供技术贡献，并通过推荐可能的先进处理选择来支持利益相关者，特别是在去除 CECs 和 ARB&ARGs 方面。考虑到当前的知识和预防原则，任何新的或修订的与水有关的指令都应解决这些污染物。因此，本文汇集了 NEREUS COST 行动 ES1403 的一组国际专家的努力，他们在三年内一直在建设性地讨论用于处理城市废水以减少 CECs 和 ARB&ARGs 的最佳可用技术（BATs）的效率。特别是，臭氧氧化、活性炭吸附、化学消毒剂、UV 辐射、高级氧化工艺（AOPs）和膜过滤，就其有效去除 CECs 和 ARB&ARGs 的能力以及它们的优缺点进行了讨论。此外，还对与作物吸收有关的上述过程进行了比较。最后，讨论了包括上述讨论的 BATs 在内的可能的处理流程，并针对具体的最终用途提出了建议，这将对 UWTP 管理者有用，以选择最适合在其自身设施中实施的选项，从而成功应对废水再利用的挑战。
