Occurrence and Reduction of Emerging Contaminants in Sludge

The 16th IWA Leading Edge Conference on Water and Wastewater Technologies, Edinburgh, Birleşik Krallık, 10 - 14 Haziran 2019, ss.40

Emerging contaminants consist of a wide range of anthropogenic as well as natural substances which include pharmaceuticals,

personal care products, steroid hormones, industrial chemicals, pesticides and many other emerging compounds. Since their

concentrations vary from a few ng/L to several μg/L, they may also be called as micropollutants. There has been a growing

awareness and concern about these chemicals for the last few decades since many of these are known to have toxic, carcinogenic or

endocrine disrupting properties.

Limited removal of most of these compounds during wastewater treatment processes, cause them enter the water resources and

move up the food chain. The hydrophobic nature of many of these compounds promote their accumulation in organic phases including

sludge during wastewater treatment plants. This creates extra concern due to the beneficial use of sewage sludge in soil in many

countries around the World. The chemically complex nature of many micropollutants make them hard to degrade during conventional

wastewater and sludge treatment systems. Besides, the presence of wide variety of chemicals indicate that one single treatment type

(aerobic or anaerobic) may not be enough to effectively remove them from wastewater and sludge.

The way wastewater treatment plants and sludge treatment units operated act as an important determinant on the final concentration

of these chemicals. This talk will highlight the occurrence of emerging contaminants in wastewater and sludge and the governing

factors to reduce them from wastewater effluents and from sludge.