would be of huge interest, especially
in the economic sphere. On the basis of these above mentioned
studies on D. polymorpha, we assessed the efficiency of this bivalve
as a new biological method as the last step of wastewater
treatment in a conventional WWTP. For this purpose, we built at
the Milano-Nosedo WWTP (Northern Italy) a pilot-plant in which
40,000 D. polymorpha specimens were added in order to
filtrate
some types of wastewaters and we subsequently evaluated the
abatement of some MEs, such as Aluminum (Al), Chromium (Cr),
Copper (Cu), Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn), Nickel (Ni) and Lead (Pb).
This study is particularly innovative because, according to our
knowledge, for the
first time, D. polymorpha has been used in a real
civil WWTP for the removal of some micropollutants. In fact, the
few studies conducted using D. polymorpha as bio-filtering agent
mostly evaluated algal or organic matter removal, but not the
abatement of emerging contaminants (as previously reported in
Binelli et al.)