INFLUENCIA DE LA CARGA ORGÁNICA EN LA DEGRADACIÓN BIOLÓGICA ANAEROBIA DE LA CARBAMAZEPINA PRESENTE EN LAS AGUAS RESIDUALES.

Abstract

Technologies based on anaerobic biological processes have been known for decades. However, its use has focused mainly on the treatment of sludge generated in conventional wastewater treatment plants. Certain micropollutants such as the pharmaceuticals naproxen, sulfamethoxazole, roxithromycin and the estrogens estrone, 17α-ethinylestradiol and 17β-estradiol, which are persistent to convencional wastewater technologies, are best removed by anaerobic treatments. As a consequence, recent studies have recovered these technologies for its use in water line as the main treatment system for urban wastewater. Carbamazepine (CBZ) is a highly persistent antiepileptic drug due to its low biodegradability with increasing presence in the environment. It has been studied anaerobic biological degradation of this micro-contaminant in an Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) reactor part of a combined UASB-MBR pilot-scale plant. The system has been subjected to three different organic loading rate steps in order to analyze the influence of this parameter on the process efficiency. The results show carbamazepine removal rates around 49% compared to the removal efficiencies below 10% achieved by conventional aerobic treatment of active sludge. (Heberer et al, 2002, Clara et al. (2005), Joss et al. (2005)).