Adaptable Process Design as a Key for Sustainability Upgrades in Wastewater Treatment: Comparative Study on the Removal of Micropollutants by Advanced Oxidation and Granular Activated Carbon Processing at a German Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant

Micropollutants have been increasingly detected at low concentrations in surface waters and may harmful effects on humans, organisms, the environment. As wastewater treatment plants are one of main sources micropollutants, conventional methods (mainly to three cleaning stages) must be improved through an advanced (fourth) stage. The optimal fourth stage should determined based not only removal efficiencies but also a holistic sustainability assessment that further considers process’s adaptability, economic, environmental, social parameters. ability tertiary plant remove organic pollutants was investigated over four months using two different methods: (1) oxidation process (AOP) (using UV + H2O2) (2) granular activated carbon (GAC). resulting average micropollutant were 76.4 ± 6.2% for AOP 90.0 4.6% GAC. GAC became saturated, it showed decreasing performance from 97.6% week 80.7% 13, after 2184 bed volumes processed. For AOP, adjusting H2O2 doses results higher efficiencies. With 40 ppm 10 kJ/m2 UV, 97.1% achieved. Furthermore, flexibility adaptability adjust real-time water quality, along with lower resource consumption waste disposal, make more promising technology when comparing aspects methods.