Suitability of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) and artificial sweeteners (ASs) as wastewater indicators in the Pearl River Delta, South China

Abstract

Wastewater indicator is a useful tool for evaluating the wastewater impact on natural water, but there is little information about the suitability of wastewater indicators for different regions. This study aimed to select suitable wastewater indicators in the Pearl River Delta region, south China by screening a range of wastewater related organic compounds. The screening campaign was carried out by investigating the occurrence and removal efficiencies of 93 pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) and 5 artificial sweeteners (ASs) in nine wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) located in the region, and the occurrence of these target compounds in the contaminated and clean surface water of the Pearl River. An ideal wastewater indicator should be hydrophilic, source-specific for domestic wastewater, ubiquitous in contaminated surface water with detection frequency (DF) >80% and absent in background water samples. For liable indicators, high removal rates (>90%) should be observed in WWTPs and they should be detected in all the influent samples at concentrations fifty times higher than their limits of quantification. For conservative indicators, low removal rates (<50%) should be observed in WWTPs and they should be detected in all the effluent samples at concentrations fifty times higher than their limits of quantification. Based on the above criteria, sucralose and fluconazole were selected as conservative indicators in the region, while cyclamate, saccharin, methyl paraben, ethyl paraben, propyl paraben, paracetamol, salicylic acid and caffeine were selected as liable indicators.

Artificial Sweeteners Reveal Septic System Effluent in Rural Groundwater

“…Although previous studies documented minimal ACE degradation in wastewater treatment plants, (Buerge et al, 2009;Scheurer et al, 2009), recent studies (Castronovo et al, 2017;Yang et al, 2017) found that ACE degradation can be significant in some wastewater treatment systems. Even so, Yang et al (2017) show that ACE concentrations in effluent can remain very high compared with other potential organic wastewater tracers, only being surpassed by erythromycin-H 2 O and SUC in a study of nine wastewater treatment plants in China. Acesulfame appears to be very resistant to degradation once released into the environment and therefore can be used to track wastewater far from its source.…”

“…Once in the environment, numerous factors can control the fate of artificial sweeteners. Saccharin (SAC) and cyclamate (CYC) have generally been found to be more easily degraded than SUC and ACE (Buerge et al, 2009; Scheurer et al, 2009; Robertson et al, 2013) and have been proposed as tracers of untreated or undertreated wastewater (Buerge et al, 2009; Yang et al, 2017). For example, Zirlewagen et al (2016) used CYC/ACE ratios to distinguish between “old or treated wastewater” and “fresh and untreated wastewater.” The presence of the more degradable artificial sweeteners in groundwater can be an indication of more recent contamination and proximity to the effluent source.…”

Tryptophan-like fluorescence as a fingerprint of dry-weather misconnections into storm drainage system

“…Specifically more and more researchers have shed light on chemical or biological marker species to identify and quantify sewage source discharge. For example, many researchers demonstrated that PPCPs, artificial sweeteners and inorganic ions such as potassium, chloride and sodium, could serve as promising markers of sewage contamination [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. However, no published literatures were found concerning the use of markers in identifying surface water intrusion into the storm pipes.…”

Electrochemical remediation of industrial pharmaceutical wastewater containing hormones in a pilot scale treatment system

“…Eclética Química Journal, vol. 44, n. 1, 2019, 40-52 ISSN: 1678-4618 DOI: 10.26850/1678-4618eqj.v44.1.2019.p40-52 remediation methods, leading to their omnipresence in pharmaceutical wastewaters 7,8 .…”