Perfluorochemicals in wastewater treatment plants and sediments in Hong Kong

Abstract

The study reported in this paper examined the concentrations of nineteen perfluorochemicals (PFCs), including perfluoroalkyl sulfonates, carboxylates, and sulfonamides in samples collected from Hong Kong wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and sediments. The study was the first to use an external isolator column to assist in the quantification of PFCs in environmental samples without having to make internal modifications to a liquid chromatography system. Perfluorooctanesulfonate was found to be the dominant PFC pollutant in Hong Kong, and the WWTP sludge was the major sink of PFCs discharged from the urban areas. Compared to discharge influenced by industrial activities, much less perfluorooctanoate was found in waste streams. The significantly lower level of perfluorodecanesulfonate in WWTP sludge reflects the important influence of consumer products on PFC distribution. The dominance of even-chain length perfluoroalkyl carboxylates in all of the WWTP sludge samples investigated further suggests the strong aerobic degradation of fluorotelomer alcohols in WWTPs.

Spatio-temporal assessment of perfluorinated compounds in the Brisbane River system, Australia: Impact of a major flood event

“…The sources of PFASs into the environment are numerous and can be a result of point (wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) or landfill leachate) and non-point (surface runoff) releases or through the degradation of other perfluorinated precursors (Ma et al 2010;Busch et al 2010;Sun et al 2011). …”

Perfluorinated Compounds’ Analysis, Environmental Fate and Occurrence: The Llobregat River as Case Study

“…These high concentrations were in agreement with other works. For example, Zhang et al [100], Guo et al [101], Li et al [55] or Ma et al [102]. On the other hand, in most of the samples the long-chain acidic compounds were not detected and just PFOA was found to be in high amounts, but this concentration can be associated with the biodegradation of other long-chain congeners currently in use [103,104].…”

“…As a last clean-up step, SPE or dispersive-SPE (EnviCarb) is performed. The alkaline extraction allowed method limit of detection (MLOD) in the range of 0.14-1.43 ng/g dw in sludge [78] and MLOQ between 1.8 and 6.8 ng/g dw [77]. The recoveries ranged from 62% to 104% with RSDs between 2% and 7% (Table 1).…”

“…In general, alkaline methanol (with NaOH or NH 4 OH) is used. After the alkaline treatment, a neutralization step with HCl (if NaOH is used) [77] or acetic acid at 1% (if the alkaline digestion has been carried out by NH 4 OH) is needed [78]. Some more details can be found in Table 1.…”

Identify biosorption effects of Thiobacillus towards perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA): Pilot study from field to laboratory

“…Within the PFAAs group, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is highly water-soluble and easily transferred in aquatic environment. PFOA has become a worldwide contaminant, detected in sediments , municipal wastewater (Ma and Shih, 2010), sludge (Yu et al, 2009), tap water (Mak et al, 2009), etc.…”