Characterization of advanced wastewater treatment with ozone and activated carbon using LC-HRMS based non-target screening with automated trend assignment

Advanced treatment is increasingly being applied to improve abatement of micropollutants in wastewater effluent and reduce their load surface waters. In this study, non-target screening high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) data, collected at three Swiss plants (WWTPs), was used evaluate different advanced setups, including (1) granular activated carbon (GAC) filtration alone, (2) pre-ozonation followed by GAC filtration, (3) powdered (PAC) dosed onto a sand filter. Samples were each step the WWTP analyzed with reverse-phase liquid chromatography coupled HRMS. Each received portion industrial prioritization method select features potentially resulting from activities. Approximately 37,000 found influents WWTPs. A number (1207) prioritized as likely origin 54 identified through database spectral matching. The fates all detected assessed novel automated trend assignment method. assigned feature based on normalized intensity profile for sampling date. Results showed that 73±4% influent majority (89%) well-removed (i.e., >80% reduction) during biological removed, average, an additional 11% features, no significant differences observed among settings. contrast, when considering subset 66 known micropollutants, necessary adequately abate these compounds higher fresh (7,000–8,000 bed volumes (BVs)) compared older (18,000–48,000 BVs) (80% vs 56% well-removed, respectively). half effluents newly formed various steps. ozonation, between 1108-3579 classified potential ozonation transformation products (OTPs). No difference could be removal filters BVs investigated (70% OTPs average). Similar amounts (67%) PAC (7.7–13.6 mg/L) filter, demonstrating post-treatment efficient OTPs.