State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
Water Res. 2020 Sep 15;183:115989. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2020.115989. Epub 2020 Jun 19.
Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) is one of the major sources of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) to the aquatic environment. In this study, wastewater samples were collected from 17 WWTPs in 17 cities of China to investigate emerging PFASs in WWTPs. To comprehensively identify PFASs in the wastewater samples, an integrated suspect screening, homologue-based and fragment-based non-target screening method is proposed. Sixty-three PFASs from 13 classes (25 subclasses) were identified, including 14 legacy and 49 emerging PFASs, and this study is the first to report on 12 of these PFASs. We found that emerging PFASs concentration had a significantly positive correlation with the gross domestic product, indicating more substitution of legacy PFASs in the developed area of China. We also analyzed the removal of the 13 PFAS classes, and found that all discovered PFAS classes were not completely removed after the treatment process, whereas the class of perfluoroalkyl ether alcohols significantly increased. All of these results imply that the release of emerging or unknown PFASs from WWTPs is a universal but not negligible problem in China.
污水处理厂（WWTP）是向水生环境中排放全氟和多氟烷基物质（PFASs）的主要来源之一。本研究从中国 17 个城市的 17 个 WWTP 中采集了废水样本，以调查 WWTP 中新兴的 PFASs。为了全面识别废水样本中的 PFASs，提出了一种综合的可疑物筛选、同系物和片段基非靶向筛选方法。从 13 个类别（25 个亚类）中鉴定出 63 种 PFASs，包括 14 种传统 PFASs 和 49 种新兴 PFASs，这是首次报道其中 12 种 PFASs。我们发现，新兴 PFASs 的浓度与国内生产总值呈显著正相关，这表明在中国发达地区，传统 PFASs 的替代现象更为普遍。我们还分析了这 13 种 PFAS 类别的去除情况，发现所有发现的 PFAS 类在处理过程后都没有被完全去除，而全氟烷基醚醇类的含量显著增加。所有这些结果表明，新兴或未知的 PFASs 从 WWTPs 中的释放是中国普遍存在但不可忽视的问题。
