Impacts of advanced treatment processes on elimination of antibiotic resistance genes in a municipal wastewater treatment plant

Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) pose a serious threat to public health. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are essential for controlling the release of ARGs into the environment. This study investigated ARG distribution at every step in the treatment process of a municipal WWTP located in Harbin for six consecutive months. Changes in ARG distribution involved in two advanced secondary effluent treatment processes, ozonation and granular activated carbon (GAC) adsorption, were analyzed. Biological treatment resulted in the highest ARG removal (0.76–1.94 log reduction), followed by ultraviolet (UV) disinfection (less than 0.5-log reduction). Primary treatment could not significantly remove ARGs. ARG removal efficiency increased with an increase in the ozone dose below 40 mg/L. However, amorphous GAC (AGAC) adsorption with a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 1 h showed better removal of ARGs, total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) than ozonation at a 60 mg/L dose. UV treatment could efficiently reduce the relative ARG abundance, despite presenting the lowest efficiency for the reduction of absolute ARG abundance compared with GAC and ozone treatments. The combination of ozone and AGAC can significantly improve the removal of ARGs, TOC, TN and TP. These results indicate that a treatment including biological processing, ozonation, and AGAC adsorption is a promising strategy for removing ARGs and refractory organic substances from sewage.