Contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), including antibiotics, antimicrobial disinfectants, nonprescription drugs, personal care products, pharmaceuticals, and steroids, are increasingly being detected in surface water and drinking water sources. While typically detected at low concentrations (ng/L to μg/L), CECs may have a large impact on human and aquatic health due to their high biological potency. Hospitals contribute a disproportionately large amount of the load (defined as mass/time) of CECs delivered to regional wastewater treatment plants. Manganese oxides (MnOx) can catalyze the oxidative removal of many of these CECs. Compared to chemically-synthesized MnOx, biogenic MnOx can oxidize organic contaminants 10 times as fast. Importantly, Mn(II)-oxidizing microbes associated with biogenic MnOx can catalytically regenerate the MnOx. Biogenic MnOx was collected from an abandoned mine drainage (AMD) treatment system to evaluate its ability to remove CECs from hospital wastewater collected from the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center (HMC; Hershey, PA). Time-composited wastewater samples were collected from two sewer vaults on the HMC campus and combined in two separated batch reactors with biogenic MnOx. Bioreactors were mixed on shaker tables and wastewater samples were collected over 24 hours. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and dissolved Mn(II) were measured most frequently to gauge removal and reactivity of macropollutants, while pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), and temperature were measured continuously. Organic micropollutants were concentrated by liquid-liquid extraction and analyzed by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography-time of flight mass spectrometry; and concentrated by solid-phase extractions and analyzed by ultrahigh pressure liquid chromatography-TOF mass spectrometry. These non-targeted analyses revealed that reaction with biogenic MnOx removed many organic compounds, consistent with measurements of COD and DOC. Wastewater toxicity was measured using the human cell-based Aryl Hyrdrocarbon Receptor and the Estrogen Receptor Alpha bioassays (INDIGO Biosciences, State College, PA). Both of the bioreceptor assays showed that the toxic potential of the wastewater samples was reduced after reaction with biogenic MnOx. These preliminary results demonstrate the ability of biogenic MnOx to remove organic compounds and reduce toxicity of hospital wastewater.

Biogenic manganese oxides from AMD treatment system remove contaminants of emerging concern from hospital wastewater

255th National Meeting (2018)

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