Sorption behavior of 20 wastewater originated micropollutants in groundwater - Column experiments with pharmaceutical residues and industrial agents

Since sorption is an essential process with regard to attenuation of organic pollutants during subsurface flow, information on the sorption properties of each pollutant are essential for assessing their environmental fate and transport behavior. In the present study, the sorption behavior of 20 wastewater originated organic micropollutants was assessed by means of sediment column experiments, since experimentally determined data for these compounds are not or sparsely represented in the literature. Compounds investigated include various psychoactive drugs, phenazone-type pharmaceuticals and beta-blockers, as well as phenacetine, N-methylphenacetine, tolyltriazole and para-toluenesulfonamide. While for most of the compounds no or only a low sorption affinity was observed, an elevated tendency to sorb onto aquifer sand was obtained for the beta-blockers atenolol, propranolol and metoprolol. A comparison between experimental data and data estimated based on the octanol/water partition coefficient following the QSAR approach demonstrated the limitations of the latter to predict the adsorption behavior in natural systems for the studied compounds. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.