PAHs in wastewater: removal efficiency in a conventional wastewater treatment plant and comparison with model predictions

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are very hazardous compounds and, owing to their lipophilicity, they can easily cross biological membranes and accumulate inside organisms, causing damage to the genetic material. The scientific interest in PAHs is related to their demonstrated or supposed genotoxicity (cancer-causing characteristics of B[α ]Py and dB[α, h] first suspected in the 1930s). This study tried to detect the presence of PAHs in wastewater and to estimate their removal efficiency in a conventional wastewater treatment plant (Varese Olona). The PAHs’ presence in municipal wastewater sewage system and in the WWTP effluent was determined by a specific analytical campaign, and afterwards a comparison between observed removal efficiency and FATE model (US-EPA) predictions was carried out.

[1]  Q. Cai,et al.  On the use of PAH molecular diagnostic ratios in sewage sludge for the understanding of the PAH sources. Is this use appropriate? , 2007, Chemosphere.

[2]  T. Bucheli,et al.  Fate of PCBs, PAHs and their source characteristic ratios during composting and digestion of source-separated organic waste in full-scale plants. , 2007, Environmental pollution.

[3]  C. Samara,et al.  Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the conventional activated sludge treatment process: model predictions against experimental values. , 2006, Chemosphere.

[4]  M. Blanchard,et al.  Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and polychlorobiphenyls in wastewaters and sewage sludges from the Paris area (France). , 2004, Environmental research.

[5]  B. Antízar-Ladislao,et al.  Bioremediation of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH)-Contaminated Waste Using Composting Approaches , 2004 .

[6]  Jiping Chen,et al.  PCDD/F, PAH and heavy metals in the sewage sludge from six wastewater treatment plants in Beijing, China. , 2007, Chemosphere.

[7]  G. Byrns,et al.  The fate of xenobiotic organic compounds in wastewater treatment plants. , 2001, Water research.

[8]  F. Busetti,et al.  Determination of sixteen polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in aqueous and solid samples from an Italian wastewater treatment plant. , 2006, Journal of chromatography. A.

[9]  H. D. Stensel,et al.  Wastewater Engineering: Treatment and Reuse , 2002 .

[10]  C. Samara,et al.  Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the sewage treatment plant of Thessaloniki, northern Greece: occurrence and removal. , 2004, Water research.