Issue 10, 2018

Emerging investigators series: occurrence and fate of emerging organic contaminants in wastewater treatment plants with an enhanced nitrification step

Abstract

The goal of this study is to investigate the occurrence and removal of emerging organic contaminants (EOCs) during wastewater treatment processes and understand the role of enhanced nitrification treatment in removing EOCs. The influent and effluent of each treatment step at two local wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry. A suspect screening method was applied with a comprehensive self-compiled suspect list. The list is composed of 1225 EOCs in 5 categories: pharmaceuticals, personal care products, pesticides, industrial chemicals, and metabolites. A total of 292–341 suspect hits were retrieved. The structures of 56 out of 86 selected suspect hits were further validated. The estimated influent concentrations of different EOCs varied from several ng L−1 to less than a hundred μg L−1. Paracetamol, caffeine, benzotriazole, methylbenzotriazole, DEET, gabapentin, metformin, N4-acetylsulfamethoxazole, atenolol acid, triethanolamine, and triethylphosphate were detected in the influent with high abundance. The results also revealed that many EOCs, such as fexofenadine, citalopram, flecainide, had low removal efficiencies. Seasonal effects were larger than the location influence on EOC removal. The secondary biological treatment played the most crucial role in EOC removal, whereas other steps except the enhanced nitrification step had a minor contribution. The enhanced nitrification step substantially removed a small number of EOC suspects. Notably, a reverse transformation from product to parent was also observed. This study provides systematic information on the occurrence and removal of EOCs in WWTPs and first important insights into the roles of the enhanced nitrification step in wastewater treatment.

Graphical abstract: Emerging investigators series: occurrence and fate of emerging organic contaminants in wastewater treatment plants with an enhanced nitrification step

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
02 Mai 2018
Accepted
17 Jul 2018
First published
18 Jul 2018

Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol., 2018,4, 1412-1426

Emerging investigators series: occurrence and fate of emerging organic contaminants in wastewater treatment plants with an enhanced nitrification step

Y. Xing, Y. Yu and Y. Men, Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol., 2018, 4, 1412 DOI: 10.1039/C8EW00278A

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements