Treatment effects and genotoxicity relevance of the toxic organic pollutants in semi-coking wastewater by combined treatment process

The removal effects of main toxic organic pollutants in semi-coking wastewater by combined treatment process were investigated, while the genotoxicity relevance of wastewater from different treatment units were monitored by using Vicia faba bioassays. Results showed that 37 kinds of toxic organic pollutants were detected in the crude sewage, most of them were removed by physicochemical pretreatment, and the total concentration of organic pollutants decreased from 4826 mg L⁻¹ to 546 mg L⁻¹. After pretreatment, benzenes, phenols, quinolines and indoles in the wastewater were mainly removed by anaerobic/aerobic biodegradation, but the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were removed mainly by advanced treatment, total concentration of toxic organic pollutants was lower than 0.5 mg L⁻¹ in the effluent. Genotoxicity evaluation results showed that the wastewater from coagulating sedimentation unit or foregoing had significant mutagenic properties. However, the micronuclei (MN) frequency (‰, which was calculated by observing 1000 cells) induced by wastewater after adsorption with modified coke was only 8.06‰, it was no significant difference compared with negative control (7.43‰). It could be concluded that the adsorption treatment was required for the safety of effluent, and the physicochemical-biochemical combined process in this study was suitable for high concentration semi-coking wastewater treatment. - Graphical abstract: Removal effects and genotoxicity relevance of the toxic organic pollutants in semi-coking wastewater by combined treatment process were investigated. Display Omitted - Highlights: • Main toxic organic matters in the semi-coking wastewater were identified. • Most of toxic organic matters in semi-coking wastewater were removed by extraction unit. • Benzenes, phenols, quinolines and indoles were removable at biochemical treatment phase. • Advanced treatment process was efficiency and necessary for PAHs reduction. • Adsorption treatment process was required for the safety of effluent.