Surfactants are high-production-volume chemicals that are among the most abundant organic pollutants in municipal wastewater. In this study, sewage sludge samples of 36 Swiss wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), serving 32% of the country's population, were analyzed for major surfactant classes by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The analyses required a variety of complementary approaches due to different analytical challenges, including matrix effects (which can affect adduct ion formation) and the lack of reference standards. The most abundant contaminants were linear alkylbenzene sulfonates (LAS; weighted mean [WM] concentration of 3700 μg g-1 dry weight), followed by secondary alkane sulfonates (SAS; 190 μg g-1). Alcohol polyethoxylates (AEO; 8.3 μg g-1), nonylphenol polyethoxylates (NPEO; 16 μg g-1), nonylphenol (NP; 3.1 μg g-1), nonylphenol ethoxy carboxylates (NPEC; 0.35 μg g-1) and tert-octylphenol (tert-OP, 1.8 μg g-1) were present at much lower concentrations. This concentration pattern agrees with the production volumes of the surfactants and their fates in WWTPs. Branched AEO homologues dominated over linear homologues, probably due to higher persistence. Sludge concentrations of LAS, SAS, and NP were positively correlated with the residence time in the anaerobic digester. Derivation of the per capita loads successfully revealed potential industrial/commercial emission sources. Comparison of recent versus historic data showed a decrease in NPEO and NP levels by one or two orders of magnitude since their ban in the 1980s. By contrast, LAS still exhibit similar concentrations compared to 30 years ago.
Keywords: Alcohol polyethoxylate; Anaerobic sludge digestion; Linear alkylbenzene sulfonate; Nonylphenol polyethoxylate; Secondary alkane sulfonate; Wastewater.
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