Persistent and mobile organic chemicals in water resources: occurrence and removal options for water utilities

Abstract

Persistent and mobile organic micropollutants (PMOC) are being recognized as serious threats to water resources and drinking water suppliers have to use advanced treatment if raw waters are contaminated with PM substances. In this study, analytical methods for 25 micropollutants for which insufficient or no data on their occurrence in surface waters and on their behavior during drinking water treatment were available, were developed. More than 120 surface water samples were analyzed and laboratory tests were performed to evaluate the compoundś behavior during aerobic bank filtration (BF), activated carbon treatment, and ozonation. Ensulizole, 1,3-diphenylguanidine and 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid had revealed the highest detection frequencies in the Rhine river. Concentration level and detection frequency correlated positively with the wastewater fraction. However, street run-off is likely an additional discharge pathway for 1,3-diphenylguanidine. In simulated BF, 7 (6) substances could be classified as persistent (very persistent). By applying powdered activated carbon, 42% of the substances were well removed as it was the case for 50% of the compounds when applying 0.2 mg/L O3. In total, eight of the substances detected in surface waters were weakly removed by at least one of the investigated removal processes and may cause problems for drinking water suppliers.

Occurrence, Distribution, and Environmental Behavior of Persistent, Mobile, and Toxic (PMT) and Very Persistent and Very Mobile (vPvM) Substances in the Sources of German Drinking Water

“…Among these, four substances are discussed in further detail due to their high concentrations, FOD, novelty, or scientific relevance (see Table ): DABCO (median 0.33 μg/L, FOD 4%), AMPS (median 3.6 ng/L, FOD 80%), OHPSA (median 0.8 ng/L, FOD 22%), and DPG (median 0.17 ng/L, FOD 17%) varied greatly in their concentration range and FOD. Single concentrations for DABCO were 2 orders of magnitude higher than in the recent study of Schulze et al and 1 order of magnitude higher than concentrations detected by Montes et al However, concentration ranges for the other PMT/vPvM substances are in line with Schulze et al, and a recent study that detected AMPS and DPG in the river Rhine and its tributaries . These compounds are mostly used in industrial manufacturing, such as polymerization or vulcanization processes with production volumes as large as 1000 to 10,000 t/a.…”

“…Single concentrations for DABCO were 2 orders of magnitude higher than in the recent study of Schulze et al 4 and 1 order of magnitude higher than concentrations detected by Montes et al 50 However, concentration ranges for the other PMT/vPvM substances are in line with Schulze et al, 4 and a recent study that detected AMPS and DPG in the river Rhine and its tributaries. 51 These compounds are mostly used in industrial manufacturing, such as polymerization or vulcanization processes with production volumes as large as 1000 to 10,000 t/a. In contrast to the first four PMT/vPvM substances, there is only limited knowledge about these PMT/vPvM substances.…”

“…Cyanuric acid and AMPS have shown to be recalcitrant to AC treatment, whereas ozonation has proven to be a suitable remediation option for AMPS and DPG. 51 DABCO and OHPSA have not been experimentally investigated; therefore, as a first estimate, the so-called Hot-target approach 57 was applied to predict their potential removal by AC and ozonation (details see Text S5). Using this method, DABCO is predicted to be recalcitrant to ozonation and AC treatment, whereas OHPSA may be removed by ozonation.…”

“…For cyanuric acid, DABCO, AMPS, OHPSA, and DPG, the reported removal rates by ozonation and AC are scarce and are mostly based on laboratory data and not in full-scale waterworks. Cyanuric acid and AMPS have shown to be recalcitrant to AC treatment, whereas ozonation has proven to be a suitable remediation option for AMPS and DPG . DABCO and OHPSA have not been experimentally investigated; therefore, as a first estimate, the so-called Hot-target approach was applied to predict their potential removal by AC and ozonation (details see Text S5).…”

Quantitation of guanidine derivatives as representative persistent and mobile organic compounds in water: method development

“…In 2019, the manufacturing and import volume of DPG in Japan equaled 1000-2000 tons [12]. In view of its acute toxicity to aquatic organisms [13], DPG is classified as a PMT substance and has received considerable attention as an emerging PMOC, as exemplified by its detection in surface water [11,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. Similar to DPG, 1,3-di-o-tolylguanidine (DTG) is a guanidine derivative that has been detected in water [2,24,25] and examined in terms of its toxicity [26,27].…”