ADVANCED WATER AND

WASTEWATER
TREATMENT TECHNOLOGIES
(7403-CHME-4)
Natural techniques for water treatment
• Microcystins (MCs) is a derivative of toxic cyanobacteria blooms (TCBs)
found in the aquatic ecosystems utilized for drinking water
applications.

• Excessive nutrient loading into the surface water bodies leads to water
eutrophication which in turn leads to massive proliferation of TCBs.

• These TCBs are considered as a serious environmental concern

because it produces wide range of hepatotoxins, neurotoxins, and
dermatoxins.

• MCs pose potential health risk to humans during swimming activities

in water bodies or drinking untreated water.
Introduction
• Eutrophication of surface water, through the excessive use of fertilizer
and manure in agriculture as well as through sewage discharges are
the major cause for the global occurrence of toxic cyanobacterial
blooms (TCBs) (He et al. 2016; Preece et al. 2017).
• Recent evidences have revealed that warmer conditions, rising CO2,
and climate changes have enhanced TCBs in water systems (Visser et
al. 2016).
• These blooms of cyanotoxins in drinking, recreational, and irrigation
water bodies pose a serious hazard for wild and domestic animals as
well as humans (Pham and Utsumi 2018).
• Among various types of cyanotoxins, microcystins (MCs) are one of the
most common and hazardous groups in eutrophic freshwaters (Li et al.
2017).
• MCs are chemically stable and can persist for several days or weeks after
the bloom event (Preece et al. 2017).
• To protect the public health from adverse effects, the World Health
Organization (WHO) recommends a guideline value of 1 µg/L for MC-LR
concentration in drinking water and a chronic tolerable daily intake (TDI)
of 0.04 µg/kg body mass per day for human consumption (Chorus and
Bartram 1999).
• Humans are exposed to MCs through chronic and accidental ingestion of
contaminated drinking water, consumption of contaminated food,
dermal contact with toxins during recreational water activities, or oral
intake of cyanobacterial dietary supplements (He et al. 2016).
Current approaches to Microcystins Removal
• As TCBs and their toxins in freshwater increase in frequency, the
protection of water supplies becomes more challenging (He et al.
2016).
• There is a need for alternate water treatment technologies to remove
MCs in order to reduce the risk from toxic cyanobacterial blooms in
drinking water.
• The most basic treatment steps for a high-quality surface water
resource would typically consist of coarse filtration followed by
clarification to remove natural organic matter (NOM) and disinfection
to inactivate pathogens.
• Two techniques are commonly used: retention of contaminants
(coagulation, flocculation, sand filtration, adsorption, etc.), and
degradation of contaminants (biodegradation, advanced oxidation,
etc.) (Merel et al. 2013).
Coagulation, Flocculation, and Sedimentation
• The traditional coagulation process involves the addition and rapid
mixing of a metal salt compound (e.g., aluminum sulfate, ferric
chloride) with raw water (He et al. 2016). These reactions produce a
variety of precipitates that facilitate the flocculation of suspended
particles, which enhances removal during sedimentation.
• Cyanobacteria are microscopic organisms with negative charges on the
cell membrane that can be roughly considered as colloids and removed
by conventional coagulation and flocculation methods.

• The application of dissolved air flotation (DAF) technique, which uses

air injected at the bottom of the reactor carries the cyanobacteria to
the surface where they are efficiently removed by scrapping instead of
sedimentation (Teixeira et al. 2010).
• The next step is rapid OR slow sand filtration using sand, gravel,
and/or anthracite.
• Rapid sand filtration removes any remaining particles in the water
following sedimentation (He et al. 2016). However, direct and rapid
filtration was not that effective in removing cyanobacterial cells.
• Cyanobacteria and their toxins were successfully removed (up to 99%)
by Slow sand filters during water treatment (Grützmacher et al. 2002).
Basic steps for microcystins (MCs) removal in drinking water treatment. (*)The
barrier which is mainly responsible for MCs removal. Source: Adapted and
modified from Merel et al. (2013)
Membrane Filtration (MF)
• Membrane filtrations (MF) involve pressure-driven filtration for the
removal of contaminants via small pores which were typically not
possible through physical coarse filtration (Roegner et al. 2014).
• The term MF includes four categories characterized by the pore size
of the associated membrane:
• microfiltration (MF) (0.1–10 µm),
• ultrafiltration (UF) (1–100 nm),
• nanofiltration (NF) (around 1 nm), and
• reverse osmosis (RO) (0.1 nm) (Merel et al. 2013).

• MF and UF techniques are very effective for the removal of

cyanobacteria cells.
• Merel et al. (2013) showed that both kinds of membranes can remove
up to 98% of the cells of the toxic cyanobacteria (M. aeruginosa).
• Although membrane filtration seems to be a promising method to
remove both cyanobacteria and MC during DWT, they require a high
cost and high technique level of maintenance to prevent membrane
fouling by NOM and cyanobacterial cells (Lee and Walker 2008).
• MF are manufactured from wood, coal, peat, and coconut shell,
activated carbon (AC) has a high porosity and a large surface area,
typically ranging from 600 to 1200 m2/g, which enables to adsorb
contaminants from water (Donati et al. 1994; Huang et al. 2007).

• AC both in powdered activated carbon (PAC) and granular activated

carbon (GAC) forms has been extensively used for decades to remove
pollutants in drinking water and wastewaters (Donati et al. 1994;
Huang et al. 2007; Drogui et al. 2012).
• Adsorption by AC, either in GAC or PAC is considered as the best
available technology and commonly used for trace organic contaminants
removal from surface water.
• As a single technology, AC most effectively removes dissolved MCs from
a water source, with reported levels of up to 99% removal (Roegner et
al. 2014).
• Water quality has a strong influence on the removal capability of
cyanotoxins by AC since NOM can compete with contaminants and limit
their adsorption.
• The advantage of AC filtration is that it is safe because no by-products
are produced during treatment process.
Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOP)
• Advanced oxidation processes (AOP) are a non-conventional
environmental engineering techniques for water treatment and
groundwater remediation.

• Examples are ozonation and UV photolysis. These are very efficient

processes for the rapid and complete destruction of MCs from water
(Westrick et al. 2010; He et al. 2015).

• Ozone is one of the most popular oxidants in water treatment

because of its effectiveness in destroying intracellular and
extracellular cyanotoxin fraction.
• The ability of ozone to oxidate MCs depends on pH values.
• At pH values below 7.0, ozone can be very effective for MC-LR oxidation;
• however, about pH 7.0, oxidation will be minimal and may not achieve
desired removal efficiency (Pantelíc et al. 2013).

• Although ozonation and UV photolysis contribute significantly to MCs

removal, the potential problem of ozonation is the generation of toxic
by-products due to incomplete oxidation (He et al. 2016).
• Further disadvantages of Ozone and UV photolysis treatment
techniques for MCs removal include: high dose requirements, high
cost of ozonation equipment, corrosion issues, and higher level of
maintenance and operator skill (Westrick et al. 2010).
Biodegradation of MCs
• Although biodegradation MCs is less commonly employed compared
to physical and chemical treatment processes, it is gaining attention
since it has been proved as an environmentally benign and cost-
efficient method for MCs removal.
• Both aerobic and anaerobic biodegradation are important in the
natural degradation of MCs.
• Previous studies have showed that aerobic biodegradation is the main
natural controlling mechanism for MCs (Bourne et al. 2006; Ho et al.
2006).
• However, recent researches revealed that MCs can be rapidly
degraded under anaerobic condition (Chen et al. 2010; Zhao et al.
2017).
• Although biodegradation of MCs from water provides a reliable, and
cost-effective purification system, this treatment requires long
reaction time from hours to days to complete degradation.
• Therefore, biological degradation should be used in conjunction with
other treatment methods such as filtration, PAC, or GAC to meet the
WHO recommended guidelines.