Removal of carbamazepine and sulfamethoxazole by MBR under anoxic and aerobic conditions

This study reveals for the first time that near-anoxic conditions (dissolved oxygen, DO = 0.5 mg/L) can be a favorable operating regime for the removal of the persistent micropollutant carbamazepine by MBR treatment. The removal efficiencies of carbamazepine and sulfamethoxazole by an MBR were systematically examined and compared under near-anoxic (DO = 0.5 mg/L) and aerobic (DO > 2 mg/L) conditions. Preliminary batch tests confirmed that sulfamethoxazole is amenable to both aerobic and anoxic biotransformation. However, carbamazepine—a known persistent compound—showed degradation only under an anoxic environment. In good agreement with the batch tests, during near-anoxic operation, under a high loading of 750 μg/L d, an exceptionally high removal (68 ± 10%) of carbamazepine was achieved. In contrast, low removal efficiency (12 ± 11%) of carbamazepine was observed during operation under aerobic conditions. On the other hand, an average removal efficiency of 65% of sulfamethoxazole was achieved irrespective of the DO concentrations.