Sewage treatment plants

Sewage treatment plants (STPs) are the main pollution source of micropollutants, including pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs). Understanding the biotreatment processes of domestic and hospital wastewaters is important for the optimization of micropollutant degradation at the discharge source in order to decrease their concentrations and associated biological effects. It is known that a large group of compounds comprising aliphatic, aromatic, and halogenated molecules are co-metabolized during nitrification by the enzyme ammonia monooxygenase (AMO). Therefore, the use of autotrophic processes, such as nitrification, to decrease the micropollutant burden on surface waters by removing biological effects, such as estrogenicity, could be an opportunity for trace compounds remediation.