TY - JOUR

T1 - Polyfluoroalkyl compounds in landfill leachates

AU - Busch, Jan

AU - Ahrens, Lutz

AU - Sturm, Renate

AU - Ebinghaus, Ralf

PY - 2010/5

Y1 - 2010/5

N2 - Polyfluoroalkyl compounds (PFCs) are widely used in industry and consumer products. These products could end up finally in landfills where their leachates are a potential source for PFCs into the aqueous environment. In this study, samples of untreated and treated leachate from 22 landfill sites in Germany were analysed for 43 PFCs. ΣPFC concentrations ranged from 31 to 12,819 ng/L in untreated leachate and 4-8060 ng/L in treated leachate. The dominating compounds in untreated leachate were perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA) (mean contribution 27%) and perfluorobutane sulfonate (PFBS) (24%). The discharge of PFCs into the aqueous environment depended on the cleaning treatment systems. Membrane treatments (reverse osmosis and nanofiltrations) and activated carbon released lower concentrations of PFCs into the environment than cleaning systems using wet air oxidation or only biological treatment. The mass flows of ∑PFCs into the aqueous environment ranged between 0.08 and 956 mg/day.

AB - Polyfluoroalkyl compounds (PFCs) are widely used in industry and consumer products. These products could end up finally in landfills where their leachates are a potential source for PFCs into the aqueous environment. In this study, samples of untreated and treated leachate from 22 landfill sites in Germany were analysed for 43 PFCs. ΣPFC concentrations ranged from 31 to 12,819 ng/L in untreated leachate and 4-8060 ng/L in treated leachate. The dominating compounds in untreated leachate were perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA) (mean contribution 27%) and perfluorobutane sulfonate (PFBS) (24%). The discharge of PFCs into the aqueous environment depended on the cleaning treatment systems. Membrane treatments (reverse osmosis and nanofiltrations) and activated carbon released lower concentrations of PFCs into the environment than cleaning systems using wet air oxidation or only biological treatment. The mass flows of ∑PFCs into the aqueous environment ranged between 0.08 and 956 mg/day.

KW - Chemistry

KW - Landfill

KW - Leachate

KW - PFCs

KW - PFOA

KW - PFOS

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77949917778&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.envpol.2009.12.031

DO - 10.1016/j.envpol.2009.12.031

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 158

SP - 1467

EP - 1471

JO - Environmental Pollution

JF - Environmental Pollution

SN - 0269-7491

IS - 5

ER -