Removal of endocrine disrupting compounds and pharmaceuticals by nanofiltration and ultrafiltration membranes

With the recent emergence of endocrine disrupting compounds, pharmaceuticals, and personal care products (EDC/PPCPs) as an important potable drinking water and reclaimed wastewater quality issue, our study has investigated the removal of EDC/PPCPs of 27 compounds by nanofiltration (NF) and ultrafiltration (UF) membranes from various drinking water sources using a dead-end stirred-cell filtration system. Experiments were performed at environmentally relevant initial EDC/PPCP concentrations ranging typically from 2 to <150 ng/L. EDC/PPCP retention was quantified by liquid chromatography with mass spectroscopy-mass spectroscopy. We have observed a general separation trend due to hydrophobic adsorption as a function of octanol–water partition coefficient between the hydrophobic compounds and porous hydrophobic membrane during the membrane filtration. The results have showed that both hydrophobic adsorption and size exclusion mechanisms are dominant to retain EDC/PPCP for the NF membrane, while the UF membrane retained typically hydrophobic EDC/PPCPs due mainly to hydrophobic adsorption.