Significance of Anthropogenic Factors to Freely Dissolved Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Freshwater of China

Abstract

Assessment of surface water pollution by organic pollutants is a top priority in many parts of the world, as it provides critical information for implementing effective measures to ensure drinking water safety. This is particularly important in China, where insufficient data of national scale have been acquired on the occurrence of any organic pollutants in the country's water bodies. To fill the knowledge gap, we employed passive samplers to survey polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in 42 freshwaters throughout the country. The dissolved ΣPAH concentrations ranged from 0.28 to 538 ng L, with the highest and lowest values obtained in Southern Lake in Wuhan and in the Nam Co Lake in Tibet, respectively. Average ΣPAH concentrations in West, Central, and East China correlated well with the population densities in these regions. The composition profiles of PAHs showed a mixed PAH source of coal combustion, fossil fuel combustion, and oil spills. In addition, all dissolved PAH concentrations were below the water guidelines developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the European Union, and the Canadian government, except for anthracene in Southern Lake. Our results also demonstrated the feasibility of establishing a global network of monitoring organic pollutants in the aquatic environment with passive sampling techniques.

Parent and Substitute Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Reduction in Urban Rivers—Benefits of the Energy Transition Policy from 2009 to 2017 in Beijing, China

“…The cluster in 2010 was positive on PC1, while the cluster in 2015 was negative on PC1. PAHs with higher rings were supposed to be mainly originated from fuel combustions at industrial temperature and domestic coals, and those with low rings were probably originated from combustion of transport petroleum . Therefore, the PCA result for individual PAH concentrations in different years also confirmed that the emissions of PAHs were decreased from industrial petroleum, industrial, coking, and domestic coal sources.…”

“…Accordingly, the reduction of the airborne PAHs and other air pollutants benefited from the energy transition policy in northern China. Recent research found that, in an aqueous environment, PAH concentrations were highly dependent on anthropogenic factors, such as population density, economic development, and urbanization. , In the Rhine and Elbe Rivers, Germany, the loads of PAHs absorbed on suspended particulate matter decreased due to the substitution of coal and petroleum with renewable energies . Urban rivers in Beijing are typical for arid regions, whose principal water source was WWTP effluent, − different from natural rivers.…”

Enhanced biocatalysis of phenanthrene in aqueous phase by novel CA-Ca-SBE-laccase biocatalyst: Performance and mechanism

“…Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) refer to a group of compounds with two or more benzene rings that are linked to form large conjugated systems with high fat solubility and relatively low water solubility [1]. PAHs have attracted worldwide attention due to their high toxicity, serious carcinogenic properties and refractory degradation [2].…”

“…PAHs have attracted worldwide attention due to their high toxicity, serious carcinogenic properties and refractory degradation [2]. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognized 16 PAHs as priority pollutants [1]. Biochemical treatment is regarded as one of the most promising technologies to remove PAHs in aqueous environment due to its low operating cost, however, PAHs tend to retain their conjugated ring systems when they react because of their stable chemical properties and low bioavailability [3,4].…”

Performance of constructed wetlands and associated mechanisms of PAHs removal with mussels

“…The typical 3-ring PAHs of acenaphthene (ACE), acenaphthylene (ACY), fluorene (FLU) and 4-ring PAHs of fluoranthene (FLT) and pyrene (PYR) were selected as the target PAHs. All of the five PAHs have high water quality guidelines that were developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [22]. The specific objectives of this study are to: 1) evaluate the influence of mussels on the purification of five PAHs in CWs; 2) evaluate the influence of these five PAHs on standard water quality variables (COD, NO 3 -N, ammonium (NH 4 -N), total nitrogen (TN)); and 3) determine the contributions of CWs components (plants, substrate, and others) and their relationship to the removal of the five PAHs under the influence of mussels.…”