Trace Organic Contaminants (TrOCs), such as pharmaceuticals and per and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), are widely detected in the environment have been increasingly detected in water supplies, including the effluent from wastewater treatment facilities. Conventional wastewater treatment processes neither remove nor destroy these compounds and this inability to remove them is a growing issue for water utilities. Investment in new treatment technologies will be crucial for water utilities to meet increasing regulations. While adsorption is among the most promising techniques for removing organic compounds from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), conventional adsorbents applied in treatment, GAC and IX resins, are limited by their fouling by organic matter, cost of implementation and reusability. New classes of materials have shown promise as next-generation adsorbents, including porous cyclodextrin-based polymers. This research is testing b-cyclodextrin (b-CD) based polymers as novel adsorbents for removal of TrOCs from wastewater and has demonstrated that the b-CD based adsorbents possess fast kinetics, high adsorption affinity and selectivity for TrOCs, making them ideal for use in wastewater treatment systems. These polymers are being adapted for scale-up and integration into WWTPs as a polishing step. Rapid small scale column testing (RSSCTs) was used to obtain breakthrough profiles estimating the performance, adsorbent use rates, and bed life of the novel adsorbents. These results were used to design pilot testing at the Terrence O’Brien Water Reclamation Plant of Greater Chicago, where effluent water exiting the plant is being treated using this advanced treatment method. These results which test performance under real conditions will inform future pilot tests, in order to design full scale adsorbers in the near future. This work demonstrates the potential for b-CD polymers to replace conventional adsorbents in full-scale systems and improve removal of TrOCs from the water cycle.
