Organic Pollutant Removal versus Toxicity Reduction in Industrial Wastewater Treatment: The Example of Wastewater from Fluorescent Whitening Agent Production

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• 作者：Annette Kö ; hler ; Stefanie Hellweg ; Beate I. Escher ; and Konrad Hungerb&uuml ; hler
• 刊名：Environmental Science & Technology
• 出版年：2006
• 出版时间：May 15, 2006
• 年：2006
• 卷：40
• 期：10
• 页码：3395 - 3401
• 全文大小：229K
• 年卷期：v.40,no.10(May 15, 2006)
• ISSN：1520-5851

文摘

Industrial wastewater treatment in the chemical industryaims at eliminating organic contaminants, as these pollutantsmay be persistent and ecotoxic. In a case study performedin collaboration with the chemical industry, we investigatedthe removal of a fluorescent whitening agent and its sideproducts in the wastewater-treatment system. Adsorptionto activated carbon and biological treatment were simulatedin laboratory tests. Algae toxicity tests were performedto quantify the toxicity of the wastewater mixture and ofsingle components. The contaminants identified accountedfor up to 82% of the wastewater's total organic carbon(TOC). Adsorption to activated carbon eliminated the TOCand the single contaminants only slightly. Nevertheless,the toxicity of the wastewater decreased by 40%. In contrast,biological treatment reduced the TOC by up to 80%, andthe whole effluent toxicity increased. These results indicatethat new ecotoxic metabolites were formed during thebiological treatment. They also illustrate that mere reductionof the TOC in the wastewater-treatment system is notsufficient for ensuring a reduction of environmental impact.Therefore, simultaneously conducting TOC measurementsand toxicity tests, as demonstrated in the current work,is recommended.