Measuring the composition of pharmaceutical substances and alkylphenol polyethoxylates in French waters and waste water treatment plants
Résumé
Within the framework of the AMPERES project, studies were conducted on different French wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in order to measure the composition of wastewaters and treated waters regarding pharmaceutical substances (PhACS) and alkylphenol polyethoxylates (APnEO) and to estimate their elimination rate. The interest of this work was: 1) to develop a robust and reliable methodology applicable to the monitoring of WWTPs independently of the type of matrices; 2) to make an inventory of releases of APnEO and PhACs depending on the type of treatment processes. All studied compounds are detected with concentrations in the range of hundreds of ng/L until Cg/L. APnEO and PhACs are generally efficiently removed in WWTPs; nevertheless the problem of nonylphenoxyethoxyacetic acid (4-NP1EC) that is detected at higher concentrations in effluents remains. In the same respect, carbamazepin and to a lesser extent diclofenac remain stable along the treatments and are not efficiently removed unless specific tertiary treatments are used.