Treatment of Industrial Wastewater

淡水污染是最令人关注的环境问题之一。通常，污染的主要来源是有机物和营养物。然而，药物、激素和个人护理产品（PPCPs）等化学物质正在进入接收水域。这种污染的主要来源是工业和城市污水处理厂的流出物。大多数传统的处理厂不能有效地去除ppcp。这些作为污水处理厂流出物进入环境的假定污染物被称为“新出现的污染物”或简称为“新出现的污染物”（ECs）。药物如对乙酰氨基酚，杂芳香化合物如苯并噻唑，农药如卤代苯并腈在商业和工业产品中有广泛的应用，在工业和生活废水中与其他有机污染物如偶氮染料一起被检测到，也在土壤、地下水和自来水中被检测到。常用的废水处理技术无法有效去除这些有毒化合物，而采用一些先进的处理技术可能会在处理过程中形成更多的有毒副产物，从而加剧这一问题。虽然其中一些污染物与癌症有关，或显示出干扰内分泌的特性，但它们对人类和生态系统健康的长期影响在很大程度上是未知的。

Contamination of fresh water is one of the most concerning environmental issues. Normally, the main sources of pollution have been organic matter and nutrients. However, chemicals like pharmaceuticals, hormones and personal care products (PPCPs) are finding their way into the receiving waters. The main sources of this pollution have been industrial and municipal wastewater treatment plant effluents. Most conventional treatment plants cannot remove PPCPs efficiently. These putative contaminants, entering the environment as wastewater treatment plant effluents, are known as “contaminants of emerging concern” or simply “emerging contaminants” (ECs). Pharmaceuticals such as acetaminophen, heteroaromatics such as benzothiazoles, and agrochemicals such as halogenated benzonitriles have wide application in commercial and industrial products and have been detected in industrial and domestic wastewater along with other organic contaminants such as azo-dyes, and have also been detected in soil, groundwater, and tap water. Commonly used wastewater treatment techniques are unable to effectively remove these toxic compounds and applying some of the advanced treatment technologies can exasperate the issue through the formation of more toxic byproducts during treatment. Although some of these contaminants have been linked to cancer or have shown endocrine-disrupting properties, their long-term effects on human and ecosystem health are largely unknown. Removal of these chemicals during industrial and domestic wastewater treatment, therefore, is of great importance. This research aims to effectively remove these recalcitrant compounds using enzymatic treatment, by which the compounds are converted to insoluble or less water-soluble oligomers. The insoluble oligomers are then separated from the solution by settling, with or without other unit operations such as coagulation/flocculation assisting in settling. Our goal is to assess the effect of different parameters on enzymatic treatment efficiency of these ECs in synthetic and real wastewater, both industrial and domestic. The key parameters to be investigated for their effects on abatement efficiency are pH, enzyme and peroxide concentrations, and the reaction time. Also, by identifying the treatment byproducts both in solution as well as in the precipitates, evaluating its possible toxicity, we will propose a possible degradation pathway for these chemicals. Biocompatibility of treated wastewater will be determined by assessing the ecotoxicity of transformation products, and effluents. This research will broaden our knowledge on the fate and impact of widespread bio-refractory contaminants such as ECs and help in developing more viable and promising techniques for the treatment of hazardous pollutants, with the long-term goal is of developing full-scale cost-effective treatment systems.