Removal of antibiotics in sand, GAC, GAC sandwich and anthracite/sand biofiltration systems

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Removal of antibiotics in sand, GAC, GAC sandwich and anthracite/sand biofiltration systems

Xu, L; Campos, LC; Li, J; Karu, K; Ciric, L; (2021) Removal of antibiotics in sand, GAC, GAC sandwich and anthracite/sand biofiltration systems. Chemosphere , 275 , Article 130004. 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.130004. Green open access

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Abstract

Drinking water biofiltration offers the possibility of the removal of trace level micropollutants from source water. Sand, granular activated carbon (GAC), GAC sandwich (a layer of GAC loaded in the middle of sand bed), and anthracite-sand dual biofilters were set-up in duplicate at bench-scale to mimic the filtration process in real drinking water treatment works. During the 3-month system operation, removal of five antibiotics (amoxicillin, clarithromycin, oxytetracycline, sulfamethoxazole, and trimethoprim) and overall biofilter performance were evaluated. Natural surface water spiked with a mixture of the target antibiotics was used as feedwater to the biofilters. Results showed that the target antibiotics were substantially removed (>90%) by GAC-associated biofilters and partially removed (≤20%) by sand alone and anthracite-sand biofilters. In particular, the GAC sandwich biofilter exhibited superior performance compared to sand/anthracite biofilter, and the comparisons among all biofilters indicated that both adsorption and biodegradation contributed to the removal of the target antibiotics in the GAC-associated biofilters. Adsorption kinetics showed that sulfamethoxazole fitted with pseudo-first-order adsorption model, while trimethoprim, amoxicillin, oxytetracycline and clarithromycin fitted the pseudo-second-order model. All antibiotics fitted the Langmuir model according to the isotherm experiment. To date, this is the first study evaluating the removal of antibiotics by GAC sandwich biofilters. Overall, this research will provide useful information which can be used for optimising or updating existing biofiltration processes in industry to reduce antibiotic residues from source water.

Type:	Article
Title:	Removal of antibiotics in sand, GAC, GAC sandwich and anthracite/sand biofiltration systems
Location:	England
Open access status:	An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI:	10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.130004
Publisher version:	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.130004
Language:	English
Additional information:	This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords:	Adsorption, Anthracite, Antibiotics, Drinking water biofiltration, Granular activated carbon, Sand
UCL classification:	UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Civil, Environ and Geomatic Eng UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Chemistry
URI:	https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10124718