Methods of Removal of Hormones in Wastewater

Abstract

Hormones are a type of emerging contaminant that reach the aquatic environment through wastewater effluents and which wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) cannot eliminate. The objective of this article was to determine the best hormone abatement technique between algae and microalgae, rotating biological discs, organic adsorbents, and activated carbon. For this, a critical review of the behavior of the abatement methods was conducted in the existing bibliographical scientific databases over the last eight years. Then, the Modified Saaty method was applied, establishing a relationship between removal efficiency, removal time, maintenance costs, stage of development, and environmental impact in each technique studied by a panel of experts, who weighted the chosen variables on a scale of 1–9 according to the variable’s importance. The results indicated that the best technique to abate hormones is one that uses organic adsorbents and which reached a final comparative value of 0.58/1, which indicates the suitability of the method to combine the five comparison variables. At the same time, the rotating biological disc technique reached a value of 0.17/1, indicating its deficiency in the balance between the analyzed variables.