Del'Antonio Nelson Rubens Nascimento, Mounteer Ann Honor, Silva Priscila Romana da, Monteiro Keivison Almeida, Furley Tatiana Heid, Silva Cláudio Mudadu
Federal University of Viçosa (UFV), MG-280 Highway, UFV Campus, Viçosa, MG, 36570-000, Brazil; Federal Institute of Technological Education of Espírito Santo (IFES), Avenida 7 de Novembro, 40, Centro, Ibatiba, ES, 29395-000, Brazil.
Federal University of Viçosa (UFV), MG-280 Highway, UFV Campus, Viçosa, MG, 36570-000, Brazil.
Chemosphere. 2025 Sep;384:144513. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2025.144513. Epub 2025 Jun 11.
The pulp production industry is a significant consumer of natural resources, with high potential for environmental pollution. Pulp mills generate large volumes of effluents, which are typically treated up to the biological treatment stage. After treatment, chronic toxicity and estrogenicity can still be detected in the effluents. The addition of powdered activated carbon (PAC) to activated sludge reactors improves the final quality of the effluents without requiring the installation of new treatment units. This study investigated the effects of adding PAC to a sequencing batch activated sludge reactor (SBR) on bleached kraft pulp mill effluent chronic toxicity and estrogenicity. The effluents from the PAC-added SBRs were compared to that of an SBR without PAC. The addition of PAC to the SBR eliminated toxicity to an alga (Raphidocelis subcapitata) and zebra fish larvae (Danio rerio) and reduced chronic effects in a microcrustacean (Ceriodaphnia dubia). The addition of PAC to the SBR also removed the estrogenic effects from the effluents, evaluated using an in vitro assay (yeast estrogen screen). The results demonstrated that the addition of PAC to the activated sludge reactor could be a promising alternative to reduce chronic ecotoxicological and estrogenic effects in the final effluents of pulp mills.
制浆生产行业是自然资源的大量消耗者，具有很高的环境污染潜力。造纸厂会产生大量废水，通常处理到生物处理阶段。处理后，废水中仍可检测到慢性毒性和雌激素活性。向活性污泥反应器中添加粉末活性炭（PAC）可提高废水的最终质量，而无需安装新的处理单元。本研究调查了向序批式活性污泥反应器（SBR）中添加PAC对漂白硫酸盐制浆厂废水慢性毒性和雌激素活性的影响。将添加PAC的SBR产生的废水与未添加PAC的SBR产生的废水进行了比较。向SBR中添加PAC消除了对藻类（近头状栅藻）和斑马鱼幼体（斑马鱼）的毒性，并降低了对微型甲壳动物（杜氏哲水蚤）的慢性影响。向SBR中添加PAC还消除了废水中的雌激素活性，这是通过体外试验（酵母雌激素筛选）评估的。结果表明，向活性污泥反应器中添加PAC可能是减少制浆厂最终废水中慢性生态毒理学和雌激素活性影响的一种有前景的替代方法。
