The attention to the contaminants of emerging concerns or micropollutants is continuously rising, also stimulated by the new initiatives at European level. The present study focuses on the removal of target micropollutants in a conventional activated sludge wastewater treatment plant which is the most common system and considered a source of micropollutants to the environment. The aims were to evaluate the removal efficiency of different stages of the wastewater treatment plant and to conduct the Environmental Risk Assessment on the final effluent. As indicated by the European’s guidelines on Environmental Risk Assessment, the SimpleTreat4.1 model was applied to this purpose: different values of the biodegradation constant, which represents the key factor for modelling, were applied, and the effects on the quality of prediction were evaluated. The evaluations were carried out thorough 3-year monitoring activity in a full-scale wastewater treatment plant on 10 micropollutants belonging to the classes of illicit drugs, pharmaceuticals and psychoactive. The model was found statistically not satisfactory for most of the investigated micropollutants. A better prediction was obtained when the biodegradation constant was calculated based on the full-scale data. Nonetheless, the results obtained in terms of risk were considered acceptable and comparable among each other.

Graphical abstract

中文翻译：

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将传统活性污泥处理厂去除微污染物的性能与环境风险和 SimpleTreat 模型评估联系起来

对新出现的污染物或微污染物的关注不断增加，欧洲层面的新举措也刺激了这一点。本研究的重点是传统活性污泥废水处理厂中目标微污染物的去除，这是最常见的系统，被认为是环境微污染物的来源。目的是评估污水处理厂不同阶段的去除效率，并对最终出水进行环境风险评估。根据欧洲环境风险评估指南，SimpleTreat4.1模型适用于此目的：应用代表建模关键因素的不同生物降解常数值，并评估对预测质量的影响。评估是在一家大型废水处理厂对属于非法药物、药品和精神活性物质类别的 10 种微污染物进行了为期 3 年的全面监测活动。发现该模型对于大多数所研究的微污染物在统计上并不令人满意。当基于全尺寸数据计算生物降解常数时，获得了更好的预测。尽管如此，在风险方面获得的结果被认为是可以接受的并且相互之间具有可比性。

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