Thessaloniki: Small contaminants in wastewater – Innovative method for their disposal
The new method is applied to biological treatment in Michaniona – What are the pollutants found in urban wastewater.
Small contaminants are detected last fifteen years in urban wastewater and until now they could not be removed as the existing wastewater treatment processes were not designed to deal with them, resulting in them ending up in surface or groundwater. These pollutants are either residual pharmaceutical compounds, such as analgesics, antiseptics, antibiotics and estrogens, or personal care products such as perfumes, sunscreens, cosmetics and shampoos.
On the occasion of the development and implementation of a new method for the removal of these micro-pollutants, the chemist Maria Salapasidou, explains to APE – MPE that for the last 30 years the interest of the scientific community has been focused on conventional organic pollutants, such as pesticides and insecticides. However, in recent years the presence of some “emerging pollutants” from new uses could not be addressed as, when the facilities that operate today were designed, these pollutants were essentially absent or could not be detected because they are in low concentrations. “These pollutants have been detected in urban wastewater in recent years, as they end up through the sewerage network at the facilities. “They can cause adverse events such as toxicity and endocrine disorders in the body.”
To address this problem, a new method of removing micro-pollutants and difficult to degrade organic load was developed in the research project “CatOzoN”, which appears in the general program “EPANEK 2014-2020” from partnerships with research organizations in the priority areas “Piores”. Development “and in the area of water and wastewater management. According to Ms. Salapasidou, who participates in the project by “AKTOR SA”, the existing technology that uses ozone in wastewater simply injects it with bubbles in the wastewater for the disinfection and removal of organic cargo and micro-pollutants . This technology was improved, as part of the research project, with the application of heterogeneous catalytic ozonation. Through this, ozone is not channeled through bubbles but with a suitable membrane, an element that improves the dissolution of ozone and achieves its better transfer to wastewater and better removal of pollutants. At the same time, some available materials that were used as catalysts were tested cheaply and commercially, improving the results “.
The new method was applied to the biological treatment in Michaniona (Sewage Treatment Plant of the Tourist Areas of Thessaloniki “Aeneas”), with the consent of EYATH SA. where a prototype pre-industrial micro-pollutant removal unit was constructed, with the aim of expanding its application, so that the data and results can be utilized in either water treatment or wastewater treatment.
The results of the research project were presented recently at a conference held at the Center for Dissemination of Research Results KEDEA. of AUTh and was organized by “AKTOR SA” (member of the ELLAKTOR Group), in collaboration with the Laboratory of Chemical and Environmental Technology and the Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Control of the Department of Chemistry, as well as with the Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry of the Department of Chemical Engineering of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
Source: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ