Redox and Temperature Dependent Attenuation of Twenty Organic Micropollutants – A Systematic Column Study

Abstract

Owing to advanced analytical procedures an increasing number of organic micropollutants have been identified within the aquatic environment. Results from field investigations evidenced the attenuation of various organic micropollutants to be impacted by the predominant hydrochemical conditions. In the course of this study, column experiments were performed to examine the influence of redox conditions and temperature on the attenuation of 20 wastewater derived organic micropollutants. For this purpose, the degradation behavior of these compounds were investigated under oxic, nitrate reducing, iron/manganese reducing and sulfidic conditions at 21 °C in sandy aquifer sediments. Redox dependent degradation was observed for the pharmaceutically active compounds atenolol, metoprolol, sotalol, iopromide, phenazone, propyphenazone, acesulfame and trimethoprim as well as for two phenazone type metabolites. In order to identify temperature dependencies, oxic columns were in addition operated at 6 °C, indicating the removal of several compounds to be influenced by the prevalent temperature.

Trace Organic Removal during River Bank Filtration for Two Types of Sediment

“…With regard to metoprolol, for which degradation rate constants of 19.7 day −1 (core A) and 4.9 day −1 (core B) have been observed, our results concur with results reported by other authors, who found a strong redox dependency of metoprolol degradation by means of laboratory experiments [18,67], and also confirm our previous findings [66].…”

“…Degradation rate constants observed under oxic conditions were 24.7 day −1 (core A) and 7.8 day −1 (core B), which are higher than those published elsewhere [23]. However, rate constants of similar magnitude (5.7 day −1 and 1.4 day −1 ) have already been noticed under oxic conditions within sandy columns [14,66]. A similar picture-characterized by an efficient removal within the upper oxic zone paired with persistence within the remaining suboxic to anoxic part of the column-emerges for metoprolol, pregabalin and valsartan acid (Figure 3e-g).…”

Sated by a Zero-Calorie Sweetener: Wastewater Bacteria Can Feed on Acesulfame

“…In soil incubation experiments, spiked ACE was degraded with half-lives of 3–49 days depending on the soil type, while no degradation was observed in sterilized soil (Buerge et al, 2011). Other experiments indicated that ACE degradation is temperature-dependent, as ACE was degraded in soil columns and in aquifer sediment at 20°C but not at 6°C (Burke et al, 2014, 2017). ACE was not degraded under nitrate-reducing, iron−/manganese-reducing, or sulfate-reducing conditions (Burke et al, 2017).…”

“…Other experiments indicated that ACE degradation is temperature-dependent, as ACE was degraded in soil columns and in aquifer sediment at 20°C but not at 6°C (Burke et al, 2014, 2017). ACE was not degraded under nitrate-reducing, iron−/manganese-reducing, or sulfate-reducing conditions (Burke et al, 2017). These clear hints on biodegradation are in contrast to the aforementioned studies showing that ACE is persistent in WWTPs.…”

Seasonal dynamics modifies fate of oxygen, nitrate, and organic micropollutants during bank filtration — temperature-dependent reactive transport modeling of field data

“…Burke et al (2018) investigated the degradation rate constant of OMPs, e.g., valsartan acid in a column study by averaged 21°C. But if the temperature was specified at different levels, it was found that microbial activity and biodegradation increased with temperature (Burke et al 2014;Burke et al 2017). Munz et al (2019) showed that in situ degradation rates of OMPs, e.g., diclofenac in BF system, substantially varied for temperature changes between 5 and 20°C.…”