Abstract
ABSTRACT Endocrine disruptors (ED) are exogenous agents capable of deregulating the normal functioning of the endocrine system in humans and animals. The ED entry routes in the environment highlight the launch of domestic and agricultural wastewater in water bodies. This work aims to evaluate the occurrence, mobility and biosorption attenuation of hormones and antibiotics in soil columns in the application of agricultural and domestic waste and rain simulation. Soil columns, which were filled with soil from an agricultural area, were installed under the conditions of a swine wastewater application (ARS) at a dose of 50 m3/ha with and without the biosorbent effect and human urine at a rate equivalent to nitrogen compared with ARS. The estrogen concentrations were observed by High-performance liquid chromatography coupled with diode array detector (HPLC-DAD), and the mass balance was developed to evaluate the estrogen removal in the soil profile. The occurrence of hormones in all analyses was approximately 20%. Pine bark adsorbent was found to be considerably efficient in removing hormones from liquid matrices. The mass balance of the soil columns with adsorbent exhibited an estrogen recovery in the matrix applied to less than a 1% rate. For comparison, the soil columns without adsorbent obtained a mass transit about 20% of the total applied.
Highlights
The transport of organic contaminants in soil profiles is a physicochemical phenomenon dependent on variables, such as equilibrium constants, soil physicochemical characteristics and the compounds involved (Goeppert et al, 2014)Among these variables, the characteristics of the soil–water system, such as the octanol–water partition coefficient (Kow), soil–water partition coefficient (Kd), pH and chemical composition favouring adsorption, are considered the most critical ones (Rabølle & Spliid, 2000)
The transport of contaminants such as emergent organic compounds (EOCs) may be affected even by small fluctuations in these characteristics because of their high occurrence in the environment at low magnitudes. Understanding this occurrence and which variables are preponderant in the transport of this class in soil profiles can be a crucial point in studies on contaminated area degradation or even in the promotion of the natural biodegradation process (Casey et al, 2004)
The daily rainfall volume applied in each soil column was 31.5-3,687.9 mL, corresponding to the precipitation height of approximately 0.5-120 mm, respectively
Summary
The transport of organic contaminants in soil profiles is a physicochemical phenomenon dependent on variables, such as equilibrium constants, soil physicochemical characteristics and the compounds involved (Goeppert et al, 2014)Among these variables, the characteristics of the soil–water system, such as the octanol–water partition coefficient (Kow), soil–water partition coefficient (Kd), pH and chemical composition favouring adsorption (or retention), are considered the most critical ones (Rabølle & Spliid, 2000). The speed of the movement of emergent organic compounds (EOCs) in the soil profiles is directly linked to their stability (Casey et al, 2004; Karnjanapiboonwong et al, 2010) and their possible degradation or microbiological conversion (Deng et al, 2016; Grossberger et al, 2014; Mashtare et al, 2013). These molecules can be interconverted because of the oxidation and reduction potential characteristics of the medium in which they occur (Nguyen et al, 2016). Even the effects, of these compounds in environmental matrices is difficult if their role is not elucidated
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