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Occurrence and treatment effect assessment of organophosphorus flame retardants in source and drinking water, Jinan, China

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Abstract

The occurrence and removal efficiencies of organophosphorus flame retardants (OPFRs) by traditional treatment processes (pre-flocculation, sand filtration, and post-chlorination processes) and advanced treatment processes (i.e., ozone and granular activated carbon (GAC), ultraviolet/hydrogen peroxide (UV/H2O2), GAC alone, ultrafiltration membrane, nanofiltration membrane) were examined in two municipal plants and a pilot plant in Jinan, China. The concentrations of six OPFRs in raw waters were at levels of 16.8–100.0 ng/L, and three OPFRs were below the detection limits. The traditional treatment processes could not effectively remove the OPFRs (the removal efficiency was − 12.0–15.4%). The advanced oxidation with ozone and GAC (the removal efficiency was 35.6–60.3%) or UV/H2O2 and GAC processes (the removal efficiency was 68.0–86.7%) were more effective than the traditional water treatment processes. The removal efficiencies of ultrafiltration process for the OPFRs was 11.2–69.8% which were positively correlated with the logKow values of OPFRs. The nanofiltration membrane process with ultrafiltration membrane process as the pretreatment was the most effective process (the removal efficiencies were almost to 100%). These results imply that the combination of ultrafiltration membrane and nanofiltration membrane is an effective measure in the treatment of OPFRs in municipal drinking water plants.

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Data availability

Some of the data and materials used during the study are available from the corresponding author by request.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Jinan Water Group Co., Ltd. for providing convenience in water sampling in the two municipal plants.

Funding

This work was supported by the Jinan Water Science and Technology Project (JNSWKJ202108), the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2021ME166), and the Special Project of Taishan Scholar Construction Engineering (ts201712084).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shandong Province Water Supply and Drainage Monitoring Center, Jinan, 250021, China

    Guixue Feng, Ruibao Jia, Shaohua Sun, Mingquan Wang, Qinghua Zhao & Li Liu

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  1. Guixue Feng
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  2. Ruibao Jia
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  3. Shaohua Sun
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  4. Mingquan Wang
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  5. Qinghua Zhao
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  6. Li Liu
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Contributions

Guixue Feng performed the experiment and wrote the paper. Ruibao Jia designed and performed the experiment. Shaohua Sun coordinated the data analysis and revised the manuscript. Mingquan Wang was involved in the instrumental analysis. Qinghua Zhao and Li Liu gave suggestions on the experimental design. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ruibao Jia.

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Feng, G., Jia, R., Sun, S. et al. Occurrence and treatment effect assessment of organophosphorus flame retardants in source and drinking water, Jinan, China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 52830–52840 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-25916-7

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