Sorption-desorption behavior of sulfamethoxazole, carbamazepine, bisphenol A and 17α-ethinylestradiol in sewage sludge

The occurrence of trace organic contaminants (TOrCs) at detectable levels in wastewater and surface waters led to a growing concern over the persistence of toxicological effects in the environment. Sorption is significant process in municipal wastewater treatment plants to remove TOrCs due to low water solubility and high hydrophobic of most TOrCs. The work herein explored the sorption behavior of four typical TOrCs onto sludge solids. The sorption process was spontaneous and exothermic. Greater sorption amount was observed for EE2 that 60.9% of EE2 in liquid phase was removed, followed by BPA (49.4%) and SMX (35.8%), while only 19.5% of CBZ was adsorbed. Sorption of CBZ, BPA and EE2 was primarily a physical process dominated by partition function, while SMX was mainly sorbed through multiple interactions, and this strong affinity between SMX and activated sludge resulted in least desorption rate. Deep insight into the pathway of SMX in SBA revealed that total removal rate in a period was about 50.22%. Sorption process was observed in anaerobic stage, and biological degradation was mainly occurred in aerobic stage with biodegradation rate of 29.18%.