Journal
WATER SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Volume 74, Issue 12, Pages 2832-2842Publisher
IWA PUBLISHING
DOI: 10.2166/wst.2016.452
Keywords
drinking water; modelling; reactive transport; riverbank filtration; sorption; tracer
Funding
- Deutscher Verein des Gas- und Wasserfaches e.V. (DVGW) [W1/02/10-A, W1/02/10-B]
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Acesulfame is a widely used artificial sweetener. It can be discharged into surface water by domestic wastewater due to its incomplete retention during wastewater treatment. Concentrations may reach up to 10 mu g/L for smaller rivers. State-of-the-art analysis allows the determination of acesulfame traces (0.01 mu g/L) and thus a potential tracking of the presence of wastewater in riverbank filtrate. To evaluate the behavior of acesulfame in the aquatic environment, biodegradation and sorption of acesulfame were tested. Batch experiments yielded low sorption for several soils (estimated solidwater distribution coefficient of acesulfame < 0.1 L/kg). Biodegradation in a fixed-bed reactor was not observed at environmental concentrations of 9 mu g/L in aqueous compost and soil extract (observation period 56 days). Only in diluted effluent of a wastewater treatment plant did biodegradation start, after 17 days of operation, and acesulfame completely fade, within 28 days. Flow-through column experiments indicated conservative behavior of acesulfame (recovery >83%) and long-term observations at different concentration levels yielded no biodegradation. Overall, laboratory experiments demonstrated a conservative behavior of acesulfame under conditions typical for riverbank filtration. However, there are hints for certain settings which favor an adaptation of the microbial community and facilitate a rapid biodegradation of acesulfame.
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