Abstract: Presently， the municipal wastewater treatment plants （WWTPs） only focus on the thresholds of the parameters specified in the wastewater quality discharge standards without considering new micro-pollutants such as pharmaceutical and personal care products PPCPs. Anaerobic digestion （AD） is a vital technology for achieving carbon neutral and excess sludge resource utilization in WWTPs， and the accumulation of PPCPs in sewage sludge would limit the technology promotion of the AD and resource utilization of residue. The sources and behaviors of PPCPs in WWTPs were briefly described， and the potential effects of high concentration PPCPs on AD performance were revealed with typical PPCPs frequently detected in WWTPs. The effects of typical PPCPs on key parameters including methane （CH4） yield， volatile acid distribution and microbial community in AD process were reviewed. Meanwhile， the post risk of PPCPs on AD of excess sludge was evaluated. The results showed that the typical PPCPs could promote sludge dissolution to provide more nutrients to microbes， while hydrolytic acidifying bacteria were hyperactivated by the stress of PPCPs， thus causing excess accumulation of volatile acids. Aceticlastic methanogens were more vulnerable to the inhibition of PPCPs compared with hydrogenotrophic methanogens， resulted in lower CH4 yield. And the resource utilization of biogas residue and slurry produced by AD along with PPCPs could pose potentially ecological risks. In the future research， the understanding of the exposure of PPCPs on bacteria and archaea should be deepened at the cellular level， and to develop new process that could both meet the effluent water quality discharge standards， alleviate the potential inhibition of AD by PPCPs， accelerate the carbon neutralization process in WWTPs and reduce the ecological risk of PPCPs.

Key words: pharmaceutical and personal care products, wastewater treatment plants, surplus sludge, anaerobic digestion, environmental and safety risks