Feasible reclamation of industrial wastewaters by consuming less resource and time requires researchers to develop advanced and sophisticated solutions to meet today's versatile needs. In this respect, novel technological applications of hybrid membrane oxidation reactor (MOR) comprising of the Fenton or photo-Fenton enhanced ultrafiltration (FEUF and pFEUF), was demonstrated for treating textile washing wastewater. Their comparative hybrid performances were explored based on response surface analyses of Taguchi experimental designs that were optimized for maximized responses at minimum oxidant and acid consumptions. From eleven specific variables, those affecting the hybrid treatment performances at significant levels were found as H₂O₂ amount, process time, membrane type, Fe²⁺ concentration and temperature. The pFEUF treatment showed better and faster organics removal efficiency than by FEUF, and the UF process was seen to be more affected from changing operational conditions in pFEUF. Organic pollutants were oxidized by 56.6 ± 8.7% degradation and 31.5 ± 3.2% mineralization, while UF allowed a synergistic contribution to the hybrid MOR performance by 38.1 ± 4.7% and 17.3 ± 3.1%, respectively. Compared to simultaneous MOR and external UF after Fenton, sequential MOR was found as the best solution by an efficiency of 84.5% COD, 70.5% TOC, and 155.6 L/m²·h. The effluents could be readily produced with quality suitable for directly discharging to the sewage infrastructure system resulting in a complete treatment. This study proved that the developed MOR techniques are technologically favorable for the treatment of industrial organic wastewaters due to high treatment performances and less resource, time and land needs. It can be finally declared that they can be used as rather attractive solutions for not only wastewater reclamation but also water recovery by further handling of their effluents.

In the recent past years, micropollutants that are pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) have been used extensively and have been discovered in raw sewage, wastewater treatment plants, effluents, surface, and groundwater with concentrations from ng/L to several μg/L. Even though many of these compounds are still not determined online, monitoring technology improvements progressed. Today’s wastewater treatment plants are not constructed to remove these micropollutants yet. Conventional activated sludge processes are used in the treatment of municipal wastewater but are not specifically designed for the removal of micropollutants. The remaining pharmaceuticals mix into surface waters. At that stage, they can adversely affect the aquatic environment and may cause issues for drinking water production. As the conventional methods are insufficient for removing the micropollutants, other alternative treatment methods can be applied such as coagulation-flocculation, activated carbon adsorption (powdered activated carbon and granular activated carbon), advanced oxidation processes, membrane processes, and membrane bioreactor. It has been observed that membrane bioreactor (MBR) can achieve higher and more consistent micropollutants removal. The removal of micropollutants is based on physicochemical properties of micropollutants and the conditions of treatment. Due to recent technical innovations and cost reductions of the actual membranes, the membrane bioreactor takes attention. In this study, membrane bioreactor experiments for micropollutants in drinking use, wastewater, and surface waters were investigated in detail based on literature investigations, and the feasibility of this method was evaluated.

This study analyses the effects of operating conditions on the removal of three different pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs: paracetamol [PARA], diclofenac [DIC] and metoprolol [MET]). The results of the experiments employing nanofiltration (NF) membranes were interpreted using response surface methodology (RSM) analysis of variance (ANOVA). In experiments performed with NF270 membrane under optimal operating conditions (15 bar pressure, 4 volume reduction factor [VRF], 5.7 pH), removal efficiencies of PhACs were 11.5%, 73.8% and 46.8%, respectively. The design of NF processes can help substantially in determining the rejection behaviours and mechanisms of micropollutants. Experiments have shown that in drug active substances removal with NF membranes, the physicochemical properties of the NF membranes used and the compound being PARA, DIC or MET affect the removal efficiency and provide an understanding of the rejection performance. These factors may also provide a guide for the applicability of the NF technology in advanced treatment processes in the future.