摘要：The rapid increase in the production and use of fullerene nC60 nanoparticles raises concerns about environmental risk and human health. Wastewater treatment plants are a key barrier to their discharge into the environment. A fate model based on the steady-state mass balance was applied to investigate the nC60's fate during the conventional activated sludge process. The Freundlich adsorption coefficient was used to determine the nC60's concentrations in the liquid and solid phases in wastewater. The effects of suspended solid (SS) removal, hydraulic retention time (HRT), sludge retention time (SRT) and mixed liquor volatile suspended solid (MLVSS) were investigated on the nC60 removal. The nC60 removal increased from 36% to 64% with the increase of SS removal from 50% to 90% during the primary treatment. The increase in HRT, MLVSS and decrease in SRT contributed to the nC60 removal by increasing the withdrawn excess activated sludge and adsorption capacity by the grown activated sludge. Under the conventional operational condition, approximately 28%~50% of nC60 still remained in the secondary effluent indicating the potential risk to the water environment and human health. These results showed the great effects of operational parameters on the nC60’s fate in the activated sludge process.
关键词：Fullerene nC60;Modeling;Fate;Wastewater;Activated sludge process
