HA7 Phthalate Esters: Fate and Effects
201 Oregon Ballroom
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM, Thursday
() The occurrence and fate of phthalate esters in waste-water treatment plants.
Brown, D1, David, F2, Tienpont, B2, 1 ECPI/CEFIC, Brussels, Belgium2 Research Institute for Chromatogaphy, Kortrijk, Belgium
ABSTRACT- Phthalate esters are widely used, in particular as plasticisers for PVC. As a consequence of this widespread use, phthalates reach wastewater treatment plants (wwtps) where they are primarily associated with the solid (sludge) phase. This paper will give the results of sludge level analyses for a range of phthalate esters from 21 wwtps from eight European countries. The results of a mass balance study at a modern activated sludge wwtp in Belgium will also be presented. This study showed a high level of phthalate ester removal from the aqueous phase with an indication that some biodegradation as well as removal onto the sludge occurred. Analysis of the inflow sewage during a period of heavy rainfall showed a very much higher phthalate load than found during dry weather. Analysis of the sludge for PVC content also showed a fair correlation between PVC and phthalate levels. These two observations indicate that some of the phthalate reaching a sewage treatment plant is in the form of abraded PVC elasticised with phthalate and at times of heavy rainfall, phthalate containing dust particles reach the sewer system via surface water run-off.
Key words: wastewater, removal, phthalates, occurence