Occurrence and mass balance of sixty-two progestins in a municipal sewage treatment plant

Abstract

Progestins (PGs) are a group of steroid hormones known to have endocrine-disrupting effects. These compounds can enter the aquatic environment via the discharge of treated or untreated wastewater and the disposal of sludge from sewage treatment plants (STPs); thus, their removal in STPs are of great importance. The present study simultaneously investigated the occurrences and fates of 62 PGs in a municipal STP in Beijing, China. Progesterone (P) and its metabolites were found to be the predominant compounds, with total dissolved concentrations of 1866 ng/L in the influent. About 11 P metabolites were newly detected, accounting for 25–55% and 75–91% of the total concentrations in wastewater and sludge, respectively. For the other three groups of PGs derived from different parent compounds, P derivatives were first detected in the STP with the highest concentration in the wastewater and sludge, followed by 19-nortestosterone (NT) derivatives and 17α-hydroxyprogesterone (17α-OHP) derivatives. The removal efficiencies in the dissolved phase of wastewater were relatively high for P and its metabolites (95–99%) and P derivatives (91–99%). And the relative persistence of NT (68–99%) and 17α-OHP derivatives (79–99%) was observed during the wastewater treatment processes. Mass balance analysis showed that the lost mass proportions were as high as 41–99%, the mass fractions in sludge were in the range of 0–55%, and 0.24–25% of the initial mass loadings was present in the effluent. These results indicated that biodegradation was the major removal mechanism of PGs in the STP.