Abstract
The imminent arrival of nanoparticles (NPs) to the wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) brings concern about their effects, which can be related to the wastewater composition. In this work, the effects of titanium dioxide (TiO2) NPs in the removal of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus by activated sludge bioreactors during the treatment of synthetic, raw, and filtered wastewaters were evaluated. Floc size, compaction of sludge, and morphological interactions between sludge and NPs were also determined. The main effect of TiO2 NPs was the inhibition of up to 22% in the removal of ammonia nitrogen for all types of wastewaters. This effect is strong dependent on combined factors of TiO2 NPs concentration and content of organic matter and ammonia in wastewater. The removal of dissolved organic carbon was affected by TiO2 NPs in lower level (up to 6%) than nitrogen removal for all types of wastewaters. Conversely to adverse effects, the removals of orthophosphate in the presence of TiO2 NPs were improved by 34%, 16%, and 55% for synthetic, raw, and filtered wastewater, respectively. Compaction of the sludge was also enhanced as the concentrations of NPs increased without alterations in the floc size for all types of wastewaters. Based on TEM and STEM imaging, the main interaction between TiO2 NPs and the activated sludge flocs was the adsorption of NPs on cell membrane. This means that NPs can be attached to cell membrane during aerobic wastewater treatment, and potentially disrupt this membrane. The effects of TiO2 NPs on macronutrient removal clearly depended on wastewater characteristics; hence, the use of realistic media is highly encouraged for ecotoxicological experiments involving NPs.
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Data availability
The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Change history
08 November 2021
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-17260-5
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Funding
This work was supported by the Research Direction and Support to Postgraduate of the University of Guanajuato. Pabel Cervantes-Avilés received funding from National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico and from Sciences Department of Tecnologico de Monterrey Campus Puebla.
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P. Cervantes-Avilés: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, writing of original draft; writing review and edition, funding acquisition; A.N. Saber: data curation, formal analysis, writing of original draft, writing review and edition; A. Mora Polanco: formal analysis, writing review and edition; conceptualization; J. Mahlknecht: formal analysis, writing review and edition; G. Cuevas-Rodríguez: data curation, resources, supervision, funding acquisition, project administration, writing review and edition.
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Cervantes-Avilés, P., Saber, A.N., Mora, A. et al. Influence of wastewater type in the effects caused by titanium dioxide nanoparticles in the removal of macronutrients by activated sludge. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 8746–8757 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16221-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16221-2