Abstract
A two phase reaction kinetic model was proposed to describe the fate of endocrine disruptors in activated sludge process. The water-sludge partition coefficients, the water-sludge transfer rate constants and the degradation rate constants in the model were determined for 17β-estradiol (E2), estrone (El), 17α-ethynilestradiol (EE2) and Bisphenol A (BPA). The calculation by the parameters determined in the model showed that the removal of E2 and BPA increased with the increase in HRT and MLSS, though the removal of EE2 was less than 38% even at infinite SRT. The effect of complete removal of suspended solids by membrane separation activated sludge process was negligible, because the target compounds were less adsorbed onto sludge particles. However higher MLSS operation in the membrane process is advantageous for the efficient removal of endocrine disruptors even if it is operated with short HRT.
