[en] Forward osmosis (FO) is a promising technology for wastewater (WW) treatment due to its lower energy requirements, higher permeate purity and lower fouling. Applying FO directly on raw municipal WW is of high interest to simultaneously produce a high quality permeate for water reuse while pre-concentrating wastewater for anaerobic digestion towards energy and nutrients recovery. This bench scale study investigated the feasibility to concentrate real raw municipal WW using FO to reach 70% water recovery with a home-made submerged plate and frame membrane module, assembled using Toray’s flat-sheet TFC membrane. Process showed high COD rejection and high differences in ion rejection depending on the charge (SO4 2-=99±2%, PO4 3--=99±2%, NH4 +=17±4%, Ca2+=10±2%). Three different gas sparging strategies (continuous air sparging, alternating nitrogen sparging and no gas sparging) were tested to control membrane fouling, being the continuous air sparging the most favorable.

[en] Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) are technologies which have proven to be to tackle organic contaminants, such as pharmaceutical active compounds (PhACs) which are discharged from WWTPs [1]. Recently sulfate based AOPs, peroxydisulfate (PDS) and peroxymonosulfate (PMS), have been largely investigated as an alternative to OH• based AOPs [2]. Further work is crucial to conclude on PDS and PMS efficiencies and their application as tertiary treatments. Therefore, the main objective of the current work was dual: to investigate the removal efficiency of PhACs by UV/PDS in comparison to UV/PMS in WWTPseffluents, then to upscale these processes for an integrated evaluation at pilot-scale, taking into account the operational costs and the environmental footprint.

[en] Occurrence and removal of 81 representative Pharmaceutical Active Compounds (PhACs) were assessed in a municipal WWTP located in a highly industrialized area, with partial water reuse after UV tertiary treatment and discharge to a Mediterranean river. Water monitoring was performed in an integrated way at different points in the WWTP and river along three seasons. Consistent differences between therapeutic classes were observed in terms of influent concentration, removal efficiencies and seasonal variation. Conventional (primary and secondary) treatment was unable to completely remove numerous compounds and UV-based tertiary treatment played a complementary role for some of them. Industrial activity influence was highlighted in terms of PhACs presence and seasonal distribution. Even if global WWTP effluent impact on the studied river appeared to be minor, PhACs resulted widespread pollutants in river waters. Contamination can be particularly critical in summer in water scarcity areas, when water flow decreases considerably. -- Highlights: • Seasonal variation revealed a higher spring-summer removal compared to winter time. • Biological process was unable to provide a complete removal for most compounds. • UV-based tertiary treatment did play a complementary removal role for specific PhACs. • Diffuse river contamination and local WWTP contribution to it were observed. • River attenuation capacity is an important factor for removing most of the compounds. -- PhACs integrated WWTP-river data evaluation of coupled biological process and UV tertiary treatment in a WWTP with significant industrial contribution and in the receiving river waters