title: Mobility of pharmaceuticals carbamazepine, diclofenac, ibuprofen, and propyphenazone in miscible-displacement experiments.
abstract: Many pharmaceuticals pass the unsaturated zone before reaching an aquifer. Therefore, laboratory sand column transport experiments were conducted to study the transport behavior of carbamazepine, diclofenac, ibuprofen, and propyphenazone under unsaturated conditions. The test water was artificial sewage effluent to simulate the infiltration of reused wastewater. The test water was spiked with the pharmaceutically active compounds and the tracer LiCl. Afterwards it was passed through laboratory sand columns, one experiment for each pharmaceutical. The physical and chemical parameters were recorded and general ions measured. Pharmaceuticals were measured using solid phase extraction, derivatization, and detection with GC-MS. The column experiments indicate a significant elimination of ibuprofen (54%), propyphenazone (55%), and diclofenac (35%), whereas carbamazepine was not eliminated. Retardation factors varied between 1.84 for carbamazepine, 2.51 for propyphenazone, 3.00 for ibuprofen, and 4.80 for diclofenac. These results show that mobility and elimination of diclofenac, ibuprofen, and propyphenazone is about in the same range as for experiments under saturated conditions whereas carbamazepine had a significantly lower sorption and elimination under unsaturated conditions.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Applied Geosciences, Technical University of Berlin, Ackerstr. 71-76, 13355 Berlin, Germany. traugott.scheytt@tu-berlin.de
authors.forename: Traugott J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Scheytt
authors.forename: Petra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mersmann
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Heberer
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D000983:Antipyrine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000032:analysis; D002220:Carbamazepine / Q000032:analysis*; D004008:Diclofenac / Q000032:analysis*; D019015:Geologic Sediments; D007052:Ibuprofen / Q000032:analysis*; D012822:Silicon Dioxide; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid; D014872:Water Movements; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D014881:Water Supply
chemical_list: D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D004008:Diclofenac; D002220:Carbamazepine; D012822:Silicon Dioxide; C009077:propyphenazone; D000983:Antipyrine; D007052:Ibuprofen