Fluorescent components of organic matter in wastewater: efficacy and selectivity of the water treatment.

Characterization of organic matter (OM) present in treated wastewater (TWW) after various treatment stages is important for optimizing wastewater recycling. The general aim of this research was to carry out a long-term examination of OM in wastewater along the treatment, by applying excitation-emission matrices (EEM) fluorescence spectroscopy and parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC). Fluorescent OM was examined in water samples obtained from four wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Israel for 20 months. The PARAFAC analysis of EEMs of water samples from the four WWTPs yielded six components. The fluorescent components included proteinaceous tryptophan-like matter (C1), three humic-like components (C2-C4), a component (C5) that was characterized by excitation and emission with a distinct vibrational structure similar to that of pyrene and a component (C6) that was characterized by the excitation and emission spectra demonstrating two peaks where the appearance of two emission peaks was suggested to reflect the formation of an intra-molecular exyplex. The biological treatment strongly reduced the concentration of component C1 thus increasing the overall fraction of humic-like OM over the proteinaceous OM in the treated water. The fluorescence of component C1 could therefore be used as an indicator of the biological treatment efficacy. The concentration of the humic-like component C2 characterized by excitation and emission maxima at <240,305/422 nm, respectively, was also sensitive to biological treatment. The soil aquifer treatment was not effective in completely eliminating the fingerprints of the initial wastewater. The concentrations of the fluorescent components in wastewater after the biological treatment were only slightly affected by filtration (0.45 μm) of the samples. For water sampled prior to the biological treatment, the 0.45 μm filtration had the most pronounced effect on concentrations of the proteinaceous matter and component C6. Strong positive correlations were found between concentrations of component C1 and total carbon (TC) in wastewater samples from the WWTPs thus suggesting the proteinaceous fluorescence in wastewater as an indicator for TC reduction. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) and the fluorescein diacetate hydrolyzing activity (a measure for the total microbial activity) were strongly positively correlated with the concentrations of components C1-C3 thus suggesting the fluorescence of these components as indicators for reduction in COD and the total microbial activity in wastewater.