Many endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are still present in municipal wastewater effluents after advanced treatment processes. Using freshwater algae can help remove or eliminate untreated EDCs in wastewater effluents. This study investigated the uptake and elimination of seven commonly found EDCs (i.e., estrone, 17β-estradiol, 17α-ethinylestradiol, testosterone, bisphenol A, salicylic acid, and triclosan) in post ultrafiltration and ozone wastewater effluents, respectively, by a green alga species <i>Nannochloris sp. </i>The results show that triclosan has the greatest dissipation rate in the algal culture with 100% removal after 7 days. The removal rates for steroidal hormones ranged from 30% to 80% after 7 days, and 40% and 20% for bisphenol A and salicylic acid, respectively. The EDCs did not behave differently in the two different types of wastewater. The removal rates highly depend on the chemical’s properties and the light conditions. Additionally, tricolsan was attached to the algal cells and biosorption was assumed to be an important transport pathway. All other EDCs were not found from the algal cell extracts, indicating that biodegradation or photodegradation were the predominant pathways. Using this alga species has been demonstrated to be efficient on removing light-sensitive and hydrophobic organic contaminants in water.

Using a freshwater green alga to remove seven endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) from municipal wastewater effluents

256th National Meeting (2018)

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