Petroleum refinery effluent contribution to chemical mixture toxic pressure in the environment.

Autor: Wang J; Department of Environmental Science, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences (RIBES), Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ, Nijmegen, the Netherlands., Smit MGD; Shell Global Solutions International BV, The Hague, the Netherlands; Concawe, Boulevard du Souverain 165, 1160, Brussels, Belgium., Verhaegen Y; Concawe, Boulevard du Souverain 165, 1160, Brussels, Belgium., Nolte TM; Department of Environmental Science, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences (RIBES), Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ, Nijmegen, the Netherlands., Redman AD; Concawe, Boulevard du Souverain 165, 1160, Brussels, Belgium; ExxonMobil Biomedical Sciences, Inc, Annandale, NJ, United States., Hendriks AJ; Department of Environmental Science, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences (RIBES), Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ, Nijmegen, the Netherlands., Hjort M; Concawe, Boulevard du Souverain 165, 1160, Brussels, Belgium. Electronic address: markus.hjort@concawe.eu.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Chemosphere [Chemosphere] 2023 Jan; Vol. 311 (Pt 2), pp. 137127. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Nov 02.
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.137127
Abstrakt: Petroleum refinery effluents (PRE) are wastewaters from industries associated with oil refining. Within Europe, PREs are regulated through local discharge permits and receive substantial treatment before emission. After treatment, PREs can still contain low levels of various pollutants potentially toxic to organisms. Earlier work, including whole-effluent toxicity assessments, has shown that the toxicity of permitted PREs is often limited. However, the extent to which PREs contribute to chemical pollution already present in the receiving environment is unknown. Therefore, our study aimed to assess the contribution of PREs to mixture toxic pressure in the environment, using the multi-substance potentially affected fraction of species (msPAF) as an indicator. Based on measured chemical concentrations, compiled species sensitivity distributions (SSD) and a mechanistic solubility model, msPAF levels were estimated for undiluted effluents at discharge points and diluted effluents downstream in receiving waters. Median msPAF-chronic and msPAF-acute levels of PREs at discharge points were 74% (P50) and 40% (P95), respectively. The calculated msPAF levels were reduced substantially to <5% downstream for most effluents (82%), indicating low to negligible toxicity of PREs in receiving environments beyond the initial mixing zone. Regardless of differences in endpoints and locations, hydrocarbons (mainly total petroleum hydrocarbons) and inorganics (mainly ammonia) explained at least 85% of the mixture toxic pressure. The msPAF levels of PREs were on average 2.5-4.5 orders of magnitude lower than msPAF levels derived from background pollution levels, suggesting that PREs were minor contributors to the toxic pressure in the environment. This study presents a generic methodology for quantifying the potential toxic pressure of PREs in the environment, identifying hotspots where more effective wastewater treatment could be needed. We explicitly discuss the uncertainties for further refinement and development of the method.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Markus Hjort and Yves Verhaegen works for Concawe, which represents the European fuel manufacturing industry, whose members operate the refinery sites included in the study. Concawe is a non-profit scientific organisation established in 1963 to conduct research on environmental issues relevant to the European fuel manufacturing industry. Concawe's operating principles aim to publish all research publicly, either on the Concawe website (https://www.concawe.eu) or as open access papers in scientific journals. Concawe has a long history of publications. Our mechanism to avoid bias is to publish our work, publish our data and methods so that the research community can reproduce and build on our findings. Mathijs G.D. Smit and Aaron D. Redman works for Shell and ExxonMobil, respectively, which are Concawe member companies. As this study was funded by Concawe these co-authors are bound to follow the mission and operating principles of Concawe. Jiaqi Wang, Tom M. Nolte, A. Jan Hendriks are employed by Radboud University and have received research funding from Concawe for conducting this study. Their research group independently carries out studies financed by university, governmental, commercial and other funding that is published in peer review journals.
(Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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