REMOVAL OF EMERGING CONTAMINANTS FROM SANITARY SEWAGE IN ANAEROBIC FLUIDIZED BED REACTOR OPERATED IN SEQUENTIAL BATCH AND/OR FEED BATCH MODES

• Grant number: 24/03302-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: May 01, 2025
• End date: April 30, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Sanitary Engineering - Water Supply and Wastewater Treatment
• Principal Investigator: José Alberto Domingues Rodrigues
• Grantee: Kauanna Uyara Devens
• Host Institution: Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos (EESC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The treatment of sanitary sewage seeks to eliminate or reduce contaminants in wastewater, but faces challenges in the removal of micropollutants, especially emerging organic compounds (EOCs), such as pharmaceuticals, which can negatively affect aquatic ecosystems. The complexity in detecting and quantifying micropollutants hinders frequent monitoring and the effective application of regulations. The careful selection of an efficient reactor plays a crucial role in the success of the anaerobic process, with the anaerobic fluidized bed reactor operated in sequential batch and/or fed-batch modes being a prominent alternative. This reactor presents significant potential in metabolite generation, effective biomass retention, and optimization of mass transfer between substrate and microorganisms, with its operational mode offering technological advantages in terms of flexibility and scalability. Additionally, co-metabolism emerges as a promising perspective for system performance improvement by utilizing other wastes, justified by the low concentrations of organic matter in sanitary sewage, whose inclusion can induce the degradation of compounds that are difficult to degrade. In this context, this study proposes to investigate the application of the anaerobic fluidized bed reactor operated in sequential batch and/or fed-batch modes in the treatment of sanitary sewage aiming at the removal of EOCs (carbamazepine - CBZ, diclofenac - DCF, and ibuprofen - IBU, in addition to caffeine - CAF as a control compound) and organic matter, evaluating the influence of feeding strategy and cycle time on reactor performance at laboratory and pilot scales, including biogas productivity and composition, molecular microbiology examinations, and ecotoxicity tests, with the aim of studying the feasibility of using this technology with approaches to fundamental and technological aspects related to Wastewater Treatment Plants operation.