Publication: Chemical Engineering Journal, 346

Chemical, Microbial and Toxicological Assessment of Wastewater Treatment Plant Effluents during Disinfection by Ozonation

Municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) effluents are primary sources of pathogenic microorganisms and contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) released into the aquatic environment. Main concerns regarding these pollutants include transmission of waterborne diseases to humans and toxic and endocrine disrupting effects on aquatic organisms. In the coming years, WWTPs are expected to invest billions of dollars in upgrades to meet new regulatory requirements for wastewater from Environment Canada. For this reason, we investigated the performance of ozone when the technology is used for disinfection to overcome multiple risk factors such as disinfection, CEC removal, endocrine activity and toxicity for real effluents collected from three WWTPs.