Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in wastewater treatment plants and drinking water treatment plants: Removal efficiency and exposure risk
Abstract
Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a group of chemicals with wide industrial and commercial applications, and have been received great attentions due to their persistence in the environment. The information about their presence in urban water cycle is still limited. This study aimed to investigate the occurrence and removal efficiency of eighteen PFASs in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and drinking water plants (DWTPs) with different treatment processes. The results showed that both perfluorobutane sulfonic acid (PFBS) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) were the predominant compounds in the water phase of WWTPs and DWTPs, while PFOS was dominant in dewatered sludge of WWTPs. The average total PFASs concentrations in the three selected WWTPs were 19.6-232 ng/L in influents, 15.5-234 ng/L in effluents, and 31.5-49.1 ng/g dry weight in sludge. The distribution pattern of PFASs differed between the wastewater and sludge samples, indicating strong partition of PFASs with long carbon chains to sludge. In the WWTPs, most PFASs were not eliminated efficiently in conventional activated sludge treatment, while the membrane bio-reactor (MBR) and Unitank removed approximately 50% of long chain (C ≥ 8) perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs). The daily mass loads of total PFASs in WWTPs were in the range of 1956-24773 mg in influent and 1548-25085 mg in effluent. PFASs were found at higher concentrations in the wastewater from plant A with some industrial wastewater input than from the other two plants (plant B and plant C) with mainly domestic wastewater sources. Meanwhile, the average total PFASs concentrations in the two selected DWTPs were detected at 4.74-14.3 ng/L in the influent and 3.34-13.9 ng/L in the effluent. In DWTPs, only granular activated carbon (GAC) and powder activated carbon (PAC) showed significant removal of PFASs. The PFASs detected in the tap water would not pose immediate health risks in the short term exposure. The findings from this study showed that effective treatment technology should be applied to eliminate this group of chemicals in the urban water cycle based on the precautionary principle.
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There has been limited investigation explicitly comparing distinct treatment processes, such as disinfection method, on PFAS transformations in WWTPs.
“While this increase in PFAS concentration has been repeatedly observed around the world, there has been limited investigations explicitly comparing distinct treatment processes, such as disinfection method, on PFAS transformations in WWTPs.”
From Occurrence, transformation, and transport of PFAS entering, leaving, and flowing past wastewater treatment plants with diverse land uses (2024) · cites this paper as Pan et al. (2016)
Drinking water treatment plants do not completely remove legacy PFCAs and PFSAs during drinking water production.
“Studies have shown that drinking water treatment plants (DWTP) fail to completely remove legacy PFASs (PFCAs and PFSAs) during the process to produce drinking water.15,16”
From Presence of Emerging Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs) in River and Drinking Water near a Fluorochemical Production Plant in the Netherlands (2017) · cites this paper as [15]
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References 60 · Cited by 283
- Authors
- Pan, C.-G., Liu, Y.-S., & Ying, G.-G.
- Affiliations
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Ying, Guang-Guo
- Venue
- Water Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2016-12
- Volume
- 106
- Pages
- 562-570
- ISSN
- 0043-1354 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2533174415
- Cited by
- 283
- References
- 60
- Citations by year
- 2026: 30 · 2025: 46 · 2024: 50 · 2023: 28 · 2022: 36 · 2021: 31 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 9
- FWCI
- 8.93
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Water Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1401235, 41503108)
- Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong province, China (2015A030310387)
- China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2015M57073201)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances research
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Water Treatment and Disinfection
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Pollution › Pharmaceutical and Antibiotic Environmental Impacts
- Keywords
- perfluorinated compounds, PFAS removal, wastewater treatment plants, drinking water treatment plant, activated sludge, membrane bioreactor, granular activated carbon, powdered activated carbon, PFOS, PFBS, sludge, human exposure risk, urban water cycle, industrial wastewater, perfluorocarboxylic acids, tap water
- MeSH terms
- Fluorocarbons, Sewage, Water Pollutants, Chemical, Water Purification, Wastewater
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