Long-term continuous treatment of non-sterile real hospital wastewater by Trametes versicolor

BackgroundHospital wastewater is commonly polluted with high loads of pharmaceutically active compounds, which pass through wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and end up in water bodies, posing ecological and health risks. White-rot fungal treatments can cope with the elimination of a wide variety of micropollutants while remaining ecologically and economically attractive. Unfortunately, bacterial contamination has impeded so far a successful implementation of fungal treatment for real applications.ResultsThis work embodied a 91-day long-term robust continuous fungal operation treating real non-sterile hospital wastewater in an air pulsed fluidized bed bioreactor retaining the biomass. The hydraulic retention time was 3days and the ageing of the biomass was avoided through partial periodic biomass renovation resulting in a cellular retention time of 21days. Evolution of microbial community and Trametes abundance were evaluated.ConclusionsThe operation was able to maintain an average pharmaceutical load removal of over 70% while keeping the white-rot fungus active and predominant through the operation.