MBR-UV/Cl(2) system in treating polluted surface water with typical PPCP contamination

This study proposed the membrane bioreactor–ultraviolet/chlorine (MBR-UV/Cl(2)) process for treating polluted surface water with pharmaceutical personal care product (PPCP) contamination. Results showed that MBR-UV/Cl(2) effectively removed the organic matters and ammonia at approximately 80% and 95%. MBR-UV/Cl(2) was used in the removal of sulfadiazine(SDZ), sulfamethoxazole(SMZ), tetracycline(TC), oxytetracycline(OTC), ciprofloxacin(CIP), ofloxacin(OFX), erythromycin(ERY), roxithromycin(ROX), ibuprofen(IBU) and, naproxen(NAX) at 12.18%, 95.61%, 50.50%, 52.97%, 33.56%, 47.71%, 87.57%, 93.38%, 93.80%, and 71.46% in which their UV/Cl(2) contribution was 12.18%, 95.61%, 29.04%, 38.14%, 25.94%, 7.20%, 80.28%, 33.79%, 73.08%, and 23.05%, respectively. The removal of 10 typical PPCPs using UV/Cl(2) obtained higher contributions than those of the MBR process, except OTC, ROX, and IBU. The UV/Cl(2) process with 3-min hydraulic retention time and chlorine concentration at 3 mg/L effectively removed the trace of PPCPs. MBR-UV/Cl(2) has the potential to be developed as an effective technology in treating polluted surface water with PPCP contamination.