Characterization of additional sewage treatment technologies: Ecotoxicological effects and levels of selected pharmaceuticals, hormones and endocrine disruptors

In the present study, two conventional (with and without sand filter) and four additional (moving bed biofilm reactor, ozone, moving bed biofilm reactor combined with ozone and a membrane bio reactor) treatment technologies were operated in small-scale at Hammarby Sjöstad sewage treatment plant, Stockholm, Sweden. The effluents were tested with five short-term (≤7 days exposure) ecotoxicological tests, and analyzed for a number of target analytes, comprising pharmaceuticals, natural hormones and industrial chemicals. Overall, the tested effluents generated few adverse effects at lower concentrations (<50% sewage effluent), and no major differences were observed between any of the treatments. The effluent treated with the moving bed biofilm reactor resulted in the lowest effects in the ecotoxicological tests. The most efficient treatment technology with regard to the pharmaceutical residues was the ozone treatment, which however caused negative effects in some of the ecotoxicological tests.