Abstract：
This study investigated the occurrence, removal rate, and potential risks of 43 organic micropollutants (OMPs) in four municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Korea. Results from two-year intensive monitoring confirmed the presence of various OMPs in the influents, including pharmaceuticals such as acetaminophen (pain relief), caffeine (stimulants), cimetidine (H2-blockers), ibuprofen (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs- NSAIDs), metformin (antidiabetics), and naproxen (NSAIDs) with median concentrations of >1 μg/L. Some pharmaceuticals (carbamazepine-anticonvulsants, diclofenac-NSAIDs, propranolol-β-blockers), corrosion inhibitors (1H-benzotriazole-BTR, 4-methyl-1H-benzotriazole-4-TTR), and perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) were negligibly removed during WWTP treatment. The OMP concentrations in the influents and effluents were mostly lower in August than those of other months (p-value <0.05) possibly due to wastewater dilution by high precipitation or enhanced biodegradation under high-temperature conditions. The anaerobic-anoxic-oxic process (A2O) with a membrane bioreactor exhibited higher OMP removal than other processes, such as A2O with sedimentation or the conventional activated sludge process (p-value <0.05). Pesticides (DEET and atrazine), corrosion inhibitors (4-TTR and BTR), and metformin were selected as priority OMPs in toxicity-driven prioritization, whereas PFCs were determined as priority OMPs given their persistence and bioaccumulation properties. Overall, our results contribute to an important database on the occurrence, removal, and potential risks of OMPs in Korean WWTPs.
摘要：
这项研究调查了发生的情况，去除率，以及韩国四个市政污水处理厂（WWTP）中43种有机微污染物（OMP）的潜在风险。为期两年的密集监测结果证实了流入物中存在各种OMPs，包括药物如对乙酰氨基酚（疼痛缓解），咖啡因（兴奋剂），西咪替丁（H2受体阻滞剂），布洛芬（非甾体抗炎药-NSAIDs），二甲双胍（抗糖尿病药），和萘普生（NSAIDs），中位浓度>1μg/L。一些药物（卡马西平-抗惊厥药，双氯芬酸-NSAIDs,普萘洛尔-β-受体阻滞剂），缓蚀剂(1H-苯并三唑-BTR,4-甲基-1H-苯并三唑-4-TTR),在污水处理厂处理期间，全氟化合物（PFCs）的去除量可忽略不计。8月份流入液和流出物中的OMP浓度大多低于其他月份(p值<0.05)，这可能是由于高温条件下高沉淀或强化生物降解导致的废水稀释。使用膜生物反应器的厌氧-缺氧-氧过程（A2O）显示出比其他过程更高的OMP去除率，如A2O沉降法或常规活性污泥法(p值<0.05)。农药（DEET和阿特拉津），缓蚀剂（4-TTR和BTR），和二甲双胍被选为毒性驱动优先排序的优先OMPs，而考虑到PFCs的持久性和生物蓄积性，PFCs被确定为优先OMPs。总的来说,我们的结果有助于建立一个重要的数据库，移除,以及韩国WWTP中OMP的潜在风险。
