Innovation Centre of the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, Karnegijeva 4, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.
University of Belgrade, Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, Karnegijeva 4, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.
Sci Total Environ. 2022 Nov 10;846:157510. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.157510. Epub 2022 Jul 20.
In this work, the environmental distribution of steroid compounds and the level of sewage-derived contamination were assessed using sterol ratios in the confluence area of two major rivers in the Serbian capital, where raw sewage is discharged without any treatment. Special attention was paid to steroids partitioning between the dissolved and suspended phases of river and wastewater samples, since steroids tend to easily bind to particulate matter. The efficiency of sterol removal in two wastewater treatment plants in Serbia was also evaluated. Human/animal sterols coprostanol and cholesterol, and phytosterol β-sitosterol were the dominant compounds in all water samples. The sterol abundance pattern in river water was different from that in raw sewage, indicating a more pronounced biogenic input, as well as greater impact of wastewater discharges on the composition of the suspended phase. Severe contamination of the investigated area was determined, with the Danube being more contaminated than the Sava River due to different hydrodynamic conditions leading to significantly higher sterol levels in the suspended particulate matter. It was also shown that the greater part of human/animal sterols and phytosterols present in river water samples (83.0 ± 11.9 % and 87.1 ± 15.2 %) and wastewater samples (92.1 ± 6.8 % and 95.0 ± 5.7 %) was bound to suspended material compared to the dissolved phase, emphasizing the need to consider and analyze both water phases in the tracing of steroid-based environmental pollution in order to obtain a realistic picture of steroid contamination and their fate in the aquatic environment. A high removal rate (>98 %) of coprostanol and cholesterol during wastewater treatment was determined and only the coprostanol/(coprostanol + cholestanol) ratio was found to be sensitive enough to be affected by an improvement in the quality of treated wastewater.
在这项工作中，通过甾醇比率评估了塞尔维亚首都两条主要河流汇流区的类固醇化合物的环境分布和污水衍生污染程度，在那里，未经任何处理就排放了原始污水。特别关注了类固醇在河水和废水样品中溶解相与悬浮相之间的分配，因为类固醇容易与颗粒物结合。还评估了塞尔维亚两个污水处理厂中甾醇的去除效率。人/动物甾醇粪甾醇和胆固醇以及植物甾醇β-谷甾醇是所有水样中的主要化合物。河水和原污水中的甾醇丰度模式不同，表明有更明显的生源输入，以及废水排放对悬浮相组成的更大影响。研究区域受到严重污染，由于不同的水动力条件导致悬浮颗粒物中甾醇水平显著升高，多瑙河比萨瓦河污染更为严重。还表明，与溶解相相比，在河水样品（83.0±11.9%和87.1±15.2%）和废水样品（83.0±11.9%和87.1±15.2%）中存在的大部分人/动物甾醇和植物甾醇（83.0±11.9%和87.1±15.2%）与悬浮物质结合，这强调了在追踪基于类固醇的环境污染时需要考虑和分析两个水相，以便获得类固醇污染及其在水生环境中命运的真实情况。在废水处理过程中，粪甾醇和胆固醇的去除率很高（>98%），只有粪甾醇/（粪甾醇+胆甾醇）比值足够敏感，受到处理后废水质量改善的影响。
