Full Description

The adsorption of twenty-two endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) andpharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) to ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF)and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes was investigated using 24-hour bottle tests. Twonatural waters (Lake Ontario water and effluent from a membrane bioreactor (MBR)) andone laboratory-grade water (Milli-Q water) were examined in order to determine theinfluence of organic matter on compound adsorption to membranes. Adsorption wasmost influenced by compound log Ksubow/sub, a measure of hydrophobicity, and watersolubility. Hydrophobic adsorption appears to be the main mechanism responsible forEDC and PhAC adsorption. Adsorption was highest with the UF membrane followed bythe NF and RO membranes. Adsorption was also affected by membrane pure waterpermeability (PWP), which gives an indication of the porosity of a membrane. It isproposed that a more porous membrane provides a larger surface area which results inmore available membrane adsorption sites. Finally, in order to avoid masking theinfluence of water matrix on adsorption due to differences in analytical samplerecoveries, it was determined that the use of compounds with surrogates would providethe most accurate investigation of the influence of water matrix on adsorption. Includes 30 references, tables, figures.

Product Details

Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 03/01/2007 Number of Pages: 16File Size: 1 file , 430 KB