Combination of advanced oxidation process and anaerobic process for hospital wastewater treatment

Hospital wastewaters are major sources of emerging compounds (e.g. antibiotics, antiepileptic, and hormones). Due to the low efficiency of conventional processes of urban wastewater treatment plants for the removal of the organic matter from this origin, the combination of one advanced oxidation process with biological processes is an attractive alternative. This work is therefore aimed to evaluate the performance of an horizontal anaerobic immobilized biomass reactor (HAIB) for treatment of previously ozonized hospital wastewaters. The organic matter removal measured as COD in the combined treatment was 93% +/- 4% and the UV254 decrease was 74% +/- 6%. The increase of the biodegradability measured as the value of the relation COD/BOD5 after ozone application was 51%. The results showed that treating hospital wastewaters by combination of an advanced oxidation process with immobilized biomass anaerobic treatment is a good alternative to transform and degrade the organic matter present in this type of effluents.