AWWA WQTC69484

Endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) are a continual source of concern in water treatment, as they are biologically active at nanogram per liter concentrations, and have been shown to cause sexual development disruption in aquatic wildlife. Adsorption processes have shown promise as excellent EDC removal processes, due to the hydrophobic nature of many EDCs and the resulting affinity of these compounds for hydrophobic surfaces. In addition to traditional sorption methods involving activated carbon, recent work has been examining the effectiveness of high silica zeolites for removal of hydrophobic contaminants. Bench scale adsorption studies are performed to collect baseline adsorption data for three EDCs (E1, E2, EE2) on three zeolytes (ranging from low to high hydrophobicity). The efficiency of UV and UV/H₂O₂ treatment is being studied with bench-scale collimated beam studies. Preliminary data indicated 90% of adsorbed E1 can be removed from DAY zeolite with UV alone at a dose of 2000 mJ cm^-2. While E1 is structurally similar to E2 and EE2, the efficiency of direct UV for degrading these compounds varies significantly, as indicated by the variation in quantum yield values. Therefore, UV/H₂O₂ AOP was also tested for removing and oxidizing the EDCs. Includes 21 references, tables, figures.