Doyle Michael G, Odenkirk Melanie T, Stewart Allison K, Nelson Jacob P, Baker Erin S, De La Cruz Florentino
Department of Chemistry, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, United States.
Department of Chemistry and Molecular Education, Technology, and Research Innovation Center (METRIC), North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, United States.
ACS ES T Water. 2022 Dec 9;2(12):2502-2509. doi: 10.1021/acsestwater.2c00320. Epub 2022 Nov 1.
Landfill leachate and municipal wastewater are major sources of chemical pollutants that contaminate our drinking water sources. Evaluating the dissolved organic chemical composition in wastewater treatment plants is therefore essential to understand how the discharge impacts the environment, wildlife, and human health. In this study, we utilized a nontargeted analysis method coupling liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to analyze chemical features at different points along two landfill leachate treatment plants (LLTPs) and two municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in the Southeastern United States. Significant feature differences were observed for the WWTPs where activated sludge clarification was employed versus the LLTPs utilizing reverse osmosis. Specifically, even though both LLTPs had the largest number of features in their influent water, their effluent following reverse osmosis yielded a lower number of features than the WWTPs. Additionally, the clarification processes of each WWTP exhibited different efficiencies as chemical disinfection removed more features than UV disinfection. Feature identification was then made using the LC, MS, and MS/MS information. Analysis of the identified molecules showed that lipids were the most effectively removed from all plants, while alkaloid and organic nitrogen compounds were the most recalcitrant.
垃圾渗滤液和城市污水是污染我们饮用水源的主要化学污染物来源。因此，评估污水处理厂中的溶解性有机化学成分对于了解排放物如何影响环境、野生动物和人类健康至关重要。在本研究中，我们采用了一种非靶向分析方法，将液相色谱与串联质谱（LC-MS/MS）相结合，以分析美国东南部两家垃圾渗滤液处理厂（LLTPs）和两家城市污水处理厂（WWTPs）不同位置的化学特征。对于采用活性污泥澄清法的污水处理厂与采用反渗透法的垃圾渗滤液处理厂，观察到了显著的特征差异。具体而言，尽管两家垃圾渗滤液处理厂进水的特征数量最多，但反渗透处理后的出水特征数量比污水处理厂少。此外，各污水处理厂的澄清过程表现出不同的效率，因为化学消毒比紫外线消毒去除的特征更多。然后利用液相色谱、质谱和串联质谱信息进行特征鉴定。对鉴定出的分子进行分析表明，脂质在所有处理厂中去除效果最为显著，而生物碱和有机氮化合物最难去除。
