Fate and removal of typical pharmaceuticals and personal care products by three different treatment processes

► We investigated 8 kinds of PPCPs in each unit at 2 WWTPs with different processes. ► Agilent 1290-6460 HPLC-MS/MS was firstly utilized to detect estrogens. ► More hydrophobic estrogens such as EE2 and E2 had a higher removal efficiency. ► The OD system was less efficient than A/O and A/A/O-MBR processes in estrogen removal. ► The estrogen removal in anaerobic units was less efficient than that under aerobic conditions.