Removal of selected pharmaceuticals in an ultrafiltration-activated biochar hybrid system

In this study, selected target pharmaceuticals (PhACs) including ibuprofen (IBP), 17 α-ethinyl estradiol (EE2), and carbamazepine (CBM) were removed by an ultrafiltration-activated biochar hybrid system (UF-ABC). Based on characteristic analysis, ABC, a by-product of combustion of waste, is a promising alternative to commercially available powdered activated carbon (PAC) due to its enhanced aromatization and porous properties. Three different systems, including UF only and UF-ABC with/without humic acid (HA) were evaluated. The average retention rate of target PhACs within the UF-ABC system (without HA: 45.2%, and with HA: 34.4%) was much higher than that of the UF only (15.4%), suggesting that hydrophobic adsorption by ABC was the dominant mechanism. In addition, although fouling is expected in UF-ABC due to the presence of ABC, the flux decline of UF-ABC showed similar flux behavior to that of the UF only system. The UF-ABC was compared to UF-PAC with respect to retention rate and permeate flux. The average retention rate for the target PhACs was slightly higher in UF-PAC (46.6%) than in UF-ABC (41.4%) for the target PhACs. However, UF-ABC was considered to be a good alternative system because the normalized flux of UF-ABC (0.85 and 0.77) was superior to UF-PAC (0.76 and 0.70) in the absence/presence of HA, respectively. Consequently, UF-ABC was shown to be a suitable alternative to UF-PAC with respect to both retention and fouling reduction.