Optimization of wastewater reclamation and reuse system using membrane filtration and oxidation processes: removal of pharmaceuticals

In a wastewater reclamation and reuse system, even though reverse osmosis (RO) or forward osmosis (FO) membrane is utilized as a main process, micropollutants, especially non-biodegradable matters, such as pharmaceuticals, endocrine disrupting compounds, and cancer causing matters, can give menaces to natural water environment and human. Initially, in this study, pharmaceuticals were measured present in both wastewater effluent and brackish water to investigate how much the pharmaceuticals remain after naturally degraded in water stream. Through the filtration with RO and FO, the concentrations of pharmaceuticals in permeate and retentate were observed. For the elimination of pharmaceuticals, the possibility of ultraviolet (UV) alone and UV/H2O2 processes for the integration with the membrane filtrations (RO and FO) was explored by observing the removal efficiencies of pharmaceuticals in feed and retentate.