TU Wien, Institute for Water Quality and Resource Management, Vienna, Austria.
Interuniversity Cooperation Centre for Water and Health (ICC Water & Health), Vienna, Austria.
Environ Sci Process Impacts. 2024 Oct 16;26(10):1868-1878. doi: 10.1039/d4em00415a.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are recognized for their persistence and ubiquitous occurrence in different environmental compartments. Conventional wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) cannot effectively remove PFAS from wastewater, and a better understanding of the occurrence and sources of PFAS in this medium would enable effective source abatement. We compared sewage from urban areas exhibiting differentiating characteristics with respect to activities in their catchments. These included a sewer that serves primarily a municipal area, with no commercial activities involving PFAS emissions being identified, another sewer with a strong influence of commercial activities potentially related to PFAS emissions, and the influent of the whole city sewage network. The year-long monitoring campaign consisted of flow-proportional, monthly composite samples and targeted analysis of 29 PFAS compounds. Principal component analysis was used to investigate the relationships between selected PFAS and standard water quality parameters such as ammonium, a known tracer of urine and thus of typical municipal wastewater. Notable findings were seen for PFOS and 6:2 FTS, whose concentrations were most negatively correlated with ammonium. Ammonium concentration data allowed for a normalized per-person median load calculation, which resulted in loads of the observed PFAS ranging from below 0.4 up to 4.7 μg per person per day. Both the commercial area sewer and the city influent exhibited significantly higher ( < 0.05) median loads (>0.9 μg per person per day) in the case of 6:2 FTS and PFOS, compared to the municipal sewer (<0.6 μg per person per day). No statistically significant difference was found for other compounds, such as PFBA, PFHxA, PFOA, and PFHxS. We argue that this approach demonstrates that PFAS can differ in speciation and quantity within an urban wastewater setting, and consideration of both municipal and commercial activities is needed for a proper understanding of sources and emission pathways within the urban environment.
全氟和多氟烷基物质（PFAS）因其在不同环境介质中的持久性和普遍存在而受到关注。传统的污水处理厂（WWTP）无法有效去除废水中的 PFAS，因此更好地了解 PFAS 在该介质中的存在和来源将有助于有效控制其源头。我们比较了具有不同集水区活动特征的城市污水。其中一个下水道主要服务于一个市区，没有发现涉及 PFAS 排放的商业活动，另一个下水道受到可能与 PFAS 排放有关的商业活动的强烈影响，还有一个下水道则是整个城市污水管网的进水。为期一年的监测活动包括按流量比例采集的每月综合样本，以及对 29 种 PFAS 化合物的靶向分析。主成分分析用于研究选定的 PFAS 与铵等标准水质参数之间的关系，铵是尿液的已知示踪剂，也是典型城市污水的示踪剂。我们发现全氟辛烷磺酸（PFOS）和 6:2 氟调聚物（FTS）的浓度与铵呈显著负相关。铵浓度数据可用于归一化人均中值负荷计算，结果表明，所观察到的 PFAS 的负荷范围从低于 0.4 到 4.7 μg/人/天。商业地区下水道和城市进水的 6:2 FTS 和 PFOS 的中位数负荷（>0.9μg/人/天）明显高于（<0.05）市政下水道（<0.6μg/人/天）。对于其他化合物，如全氟丁酸（PFBA）、全氟己酸（PFHxA）、PFOA 和全氟己基磺酸（PFHxS），则没有发现统计学上的显著差异。我们认为，这种方法表明 PFAS 在城市废水环境中可能在形态和数量上存在差异，需要考虑市政和商业活动，才能更好地了解城市环境中的来源和排放途径。
