Fate and Removal of Triclosan in Activated Sludge Wastewater Treatment

Indian Creek Middle Basin , Blue River and Sherwood Wastewater Treatment Plants
Kansas

The fate and removal of triclosan (TCS), an antimicrobial agent and emerging surface water pollutant, was studied in three full-scale activated sludge plants. The performance of the activated sludge wastewater facilities evaluated in this study reflected consistently high removal efficiencies for TCS, and consistent secondary effluent TCS concentrations. The mean overall removal of TCS ranged from 94.4% to 96.1% for the facilities evaluated. Consistently low residual concentrations of soluble TCS were found to be achieved by activated sludge effluent examined in this study with average concentrations ranging from 0.00098 to 0.0013 mg/L and a relative standard deviation of 26% or less. General chemical fate model results indicated that biodegradation was likely to be the dominant mechanism in the TCS removal (79 to 90%) versus sorption to waste activated sludge solids and effluent particulate matter (7 to 18%) or volatilization (less than 0.0002%). Source: WEFTEC 2009 Proceedings

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Posted: July 6th, 2010 | Filed under: Waste Water Treatment | Tags: Environmental Impact, Triclosan Removal | No Comments »

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