Occurrence and Behavior of Polar Organic Contaminants in Croatian Municipal Wastewaters
A comprehensive survey of Croatian municipal wastewaters for polar contaminants was performed using liquid chromatography electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (LC/ESI/MS). The study comprised analyses of untreated wastewater samples from all major cities in Croatia. In addition, in some municipalities, equipped with a mechanical/biological sewage treatment plant, the investigation was extended to study behavior of selected contaminant classes during wastewater treatment. A preliminary qualitative screening, involving full scan LC/ESI/MS analyses in both positive and negative ionization modes, revealed a complex composition of the polar contaminants, characterized by a strong predominance of detergent-derived organic compounds and significant levels of pharmaceuticals in all investigated samples. Consequently, subsequent quantitative analyses were focused on the determination of these two important contaminant classes. Surfactant analyses encompassed the anionic surfactants of the alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS) type and the nonionic surfactants of the alkylphenol polyethoxylate (APnEO) type, while widely used antimicrobial agents (sulfonamides, fluoroquinolones and macrolides) were selected as important representatives of pharmaceuticals. The results indicated LAS as the most abundant individual contaminant class in raw wastewaters, reaching typically mg/l levels, while secondary effluents were characterized by much lower concentrations and an enhanced relative contribution of more biorefractory contaminants such as biotransformation products of APnEO and pharmaceuticals. It was shown that surfactant-derived alkylphenolic compounds were subject to marked changes during the sewage treatment due to the biological transformations and physico-chemical partitioning. As a consequence, the relative percentages of individual alkylphenolic compounds in the dissolved and particulate fractions were highly variable. A significant association of the most potent endocrine-disrupting alkylphenolic metabolites, including nonylphenol (NP) and nonylphenol monoethoxylate (NP1EO), with the particulate phase was observed, while the dissolved phase contained mainly more polar and less toxic nonylphenoxy carboxylic acids (NPnEC). The concentrations of antimicrobial compounds in municipal wastewater effluents were mainly below 1 μg/L, with sulfomethoxazole, norfloxacine, azithromycine as the main representatives of the individual antimicrobial classes. These concentrations were similar to the values reported for typical sewage effluents in the Western Europe, while the elimination efficiencies were relatively low, indicating that further improvements of the existing conventional wastewater treatment technologies might be necessary.
polar organic contaminants surfactants pharmaceuticals wastewater liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry LCMS
Marijan AHEL Ivan SENTA Senka TERZIC
Department of Marine and Environmental Research,Rudjer Boskovic Institute,10000 Zagreb,Croatia
国际会议
2009 International Symposium on Environmental Science and Technology(2009环境科学与技术国际会议)
上海
英文
1104-1112
2009-06-02（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）