A survey of endocrine disrupting chemicals in sewage and a preliminary treatment trial

J.-Q. Jiang*, Q. Yin, P. Pearce, J. Zhou

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper demonstrates that synthetic endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) (e.g. bisphenol-A) and natural EDCs (e.g. estrone and 17β-estradiol) were found in the crude sewage from two sewage treatment works. Conventional biological processes can lower EDC concentrations to several hundred nanograms per litre. Because natural EDCs (e.g. estrone and 17β1-estradiol) have biological activity and an adverse impact on the environment at extremely low concentrations (several tens of nanograms per litre), and because the existing wastewater/sewage treatment processes are not adequate to reduce natural EDC concentrations lower than 100 ng L-1, further treatment after conventional biological processes is required. Preliminary trials with ferrate(VI) and electrochemical oxidation processes demonstrated that the former is more effective than the latter in reducing EDC concentrations, and that both the processes can effectively reduce EDCs to very low levels, ranging between 20 and 100 ng L-1.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-7
Number of pages7
JournalWater Science and Technology
Volume52
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Oct 2005
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Electrochemical oxidation
  • Endocrine disrupting chemicals
  • Ferrate(VI)
  • Sewage treatment

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Environmental Engineering
  • Water Science and Technology

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