title: Seasonal variations in the concentration and removal of nonylphenol ethoxylates from the wastewater of a sewage treatment plant.
abstract: In this study, we investigated the occurrence and fate of nonylphenol (NP), nonylphenol monoethoxylate (NP1EO) and nonylphenol diethoxylate (NP2EO) in a full scale sewage treatment plant, which applied an Anaerobic/Oxic process. Concentrations of NP, NP1EO and NP2EO in the wastewater were measured during the period spanning a whole year. The results showed remarkable seasonal variation in the concentrations of the compounds. The NPnEO compounds were most abundant in winter, with the total concentrations of influent NP, NP1EO and NP2EO ranging from 3900 to 7000ng/L, 4000 to 4800ng/L and 5200 to 7200ng/L, respectively. Regarding the total removal efficiencies of the three types of short-chain NPnEO compounds, different trends were exhibited according to different seasons. The average removal efficiency of NP for the different seasons ranked as follows: winter>summer>autumn>spring; NP2EO concentrations decreased as follows: summer>autumn>winter>spring, while NP1EO concentrations reduced according to: spring>summer>autumn>winter. We also investigated the contribution ratio of individual treatment units in the A/O process, with the findings suggesting that the anaerobic treatment unit plays an important role in the elimination of short-chain NPnEOs from the wastewater.
authors.affiliation: School of Forestry, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China; State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China. Electronic address: dawengao@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Dawen
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China.
authors.forename: Zhe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China.
authors.forename: Junxue
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Guan
authors.affiliation: School of Forestry, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China. Electronic address: hongliang@nefu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liang
mesh_terms: D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D010636:Phenols; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D062065:Wastewater / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*; D014877:Water Pollution, Chemical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
chemical_list: D010636:Phenols; D062065:Wastewater; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; C025256:nonylphenol
keywords: A/O process.; Nonylphenol ethoxylates; Seasonal variation.; Sewage treatment plants.