Desreguladores endócrinos presentes em matrizes ambientais: análise por SPE-HPLC e remoção com argila pilarizada.

Abstract

The substances called endocrine disruptors (ED) are a new category of environmental pollutants that interfere in the functions of the endocrine system, being found in the environment at concentrations in the order ug L-1 and L-1 ng. The WWTP effluent release are important sources of such compounds in the aquatic environment since the conventional methods of water treatment and sewage not completely remove these micropollutants. In this study we assessed the efficiency of pillared clay using tin dioxide as an agent for removing pilarizante DE (of different classes) in environmental matrices. Experimental design was used to evaluate the factors affecting the adsorptive process. For optimization step of the previously validated analytical method it was studied the effectiveness of three commercial SPE cartridges. Tributaries concentrations were obtained, effluents and removal efficiencies of two sewage treatment plants operating in full scale (UASB + chlorination). Finally, DE adsorption experiments were performed in single and multicomponent systems as well as regenerating the adsorbent. The Oasis and Strata-X cartridge efficiency showed high and selective ability, however, only Strata-X cartridge was selected in this study, since it showed higher recovery values (%) 50 (Sulfamethoxazol); 83 (Trimethoprim); 171 (diclofenac); 183 (estrone); 14 (17β-estradiol) and 82 (Bisphenol A). The chromatographic method was selective for all compounds studied, except for the hormone estriol. The quantification limit values (1.28 to 29.97 ng L-1) and detection limit (from 0.42 to 9.89 ng L-1) obtained in this study were low. Most of the recovery values was less than 100%. It was observed that the esgosto tributary of the studied WWTPs still present in their waste considerable amounts of DE, with average values of effluents from 21.94 to 311.79 ng L-1 for ETE Aracapé and 4.41 to 123.47 ng L 1 to ETE Mondubim, which highlights the need for a step of post-treatment in the studied WWTPs. They have found greater efficiencies treatment for compounds bisphenol A (90.8%) and 17α-ethinylestradiol (76.6%) ETE Mondubim. As for the compounds sulfamethoxazole and estrone it was observed an increase in effluent values of 18.9 and 28.6% respectively for the ETE Aracapé. The pillared clay showed higher adsorption capacity compared to the natural clay, due to enlargement of the interlayer space of the clay and increased volume of mesopores as evidenced by the characterization techniques. After analyzing the results of the factorial design was set optimum values of the variables found in the process to make the studies of kinetics and adsorption isotherm, which was temperature - 25 ° C; Agitation - 300 rpm; Mass of adsorbent: 300 mg and pH - 3. The kinetic study indicated 1 hour equilibration time, with the model of pseudo-second order which best fit to the data. The intraparticle diffusion mechanism was not the determining step of the speed and mass transfer process. The majority of the DE compounds obtained greater removal in multicomponent system when compared to single-component studies. The experimental data better adsorption isotherm set the model Freundlich except to refer to the TMP and BPA compounds. The sorbent regeneration tests indicated a significant reduction in the adsorption capacity of pillared clay in the 2nd adsorption cycle for TMP and compounds BPA, with a reduction of 99.5 and 79.2%, respectively. For E2 and E1 compounds, adsorption was affected after the 3rd cycle.