Tasselli Stefano, Valenti Erica, Guzzella Licia
National Research Council-Water Research Institute (CNR-IRSA), S.S. Brugherio via del Mulino 19, 20861, Brugherio, MB, Italy.
Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Milano Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 1, 20126, Milano, Italy.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2021 Jul;28(28):38054-38064. doi: 10.1007/s11356-021-13433-4. Epub 2021 Mar 16.
The first Italian annual monitoring study was carried out in Northern Italy to analyse the fate and removal of polycyclic musk fragrances (PMFs) in a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) with conventional activated sludge (CAS) system. Water was sampled in four different stations along wastewater treatments to better understand the behaviour of PMFs along different steps of the plant. Galaxolide (HHCB) and galaxolidone (HHCB-lactone) were found in concentrations at μg L level, 1 order of magnitude greater than tonalide (AHTN), whilst phantolide (AHDI) was never detected and celestolide (ADBI) was measured only at trace levels. Considering water concentrations, HHCB and AHTN evidenced a slight reduction, 20% and 50%, respectively, during wastewater treatments, thus resulting in a modest removal efficiency, mainly due to adsorption processes during the biological treatment. This was also confirmed by the high PMF concentrations measured in activated sludges which remained stable throughout the year. On the contrary, HHCB-lactone registered an increase up to 70% during wastewater treatments caused by the biotransformation of the parental compound HHCB during the biological treatment, as shown by the different HHCB-lactone/HHCB ratio measured before and after this step. No significant differences were recorded between seasons in terms of PMF input onto WWTP, in accordance with the common use of these chemicals in civil houses. Overall, this study suggests that current technologies employed in conventional WWTP are not enough efficient in removing these organic micropollutants from wastewaters and, therefore, WWTP effluents represent possible point sources of pollution for aquatic ecosystems. Additional treatments are necessary to enhance the removal of PMFs in order to increase the quality of the WWTP effluents.
意大利首次年度监测研究在意大利北部开展，旨在分析一家采用传统活性污泥（CAS）系统的污水处理厂（WWTP）中多环麝香香料（PMF）的去向和去除情况。在污水处理的四个不同站点采集水样，以便更好地了解PMF在该厂不同处理步骤中的行为。发现佳乐麝香（HHCB）和佳乐麝香内酯（HHCB - lactone）的浓度为μg/L级别，比吐纳麝香（AHTN）高1个数量级，而芬多精（AHDI）从未被检测到，天芥菜精（ADBI）仅在痕量水平被检测到。考虑到水体浓度，在污水处理过程中，HHCB和AHTN分别有轻微降低，降幅为20%和50%，因此去除效率适中，这主要归因于生物处理过程中的吸附作用。活性污泥中测得的高浓度PMF全年保持稳定，这也证实了上述情况。相反，由于生物处理过程中母体化合物HHCB的生物转化，HHCB - lactone在污水处理过程中浓度增加了70%，这一点可通过该步骤前后测得的不同HHCB - lactone/HHCB比值得以证明。就进入污水处理厂的PMF而言，各季节之间未记录到显著差异，这与这些化学品在民用住宅中的普遍使用情况相符。总体而言，这项研究表明，传统污水处理厂采用的现有技术在去除废水中这些有机微污染物方面效率不够高，因此，污水处理厂的出水可能是水生生态系统的潜在污染源。需要额外的处理措施来提高PMF的去除率，以提升污水处理厂出水的质量。
