Pollution and risk assessment of phenolic compounds in drinking water sources from South-Western Nigeria

Phenolic compounds in water: Review of occurrence, risk, and retention by membrane technology

Phenolic compounds are one of the main contributors to water source contamination worldwide. In this review, the data collected on Elsevier, Scopus, and Pubmed, considering papers published between 2000 and 2023, showed more than 60 different phenols have been identified in water matrix (<0.065-179,000,000 ng L-1). The highest concentration reported was in surface water canals in India. The most recurrent and studied compound was bisphenol A (n = 93) in concentrations ranging from 0.45 to 2,970,000 ng L-1. The solid phase extraction (HBL Oasis cartridge) and methanol as solvent was the method of pre-concentration most used followed by gas chromatography for the determination of phenols in water samples. The importance of drinking water guidelines incorporating more phenolic compounds was emphasized given the variety of these compounds quantified in water matrix. The human health risk assessment (HRA) was performed for the min-max concentrations of the pollutants reported in the literature. High HRA even at the lowest concentrations for 2-nitrophenol, 2,6-dichlorophenol, 3,4,5-trichlorophenol, 2,3,4,6-tetrachlorophenol, and 2,4-dinitrophenol was recognized. The cancer risk estimated was considered possible for 3-methylphenol, 2,4-dimethylphenol, 2,4,6-trichlorophenol, pentachlorophenol, and 2,4-dinitrophenol in the highest concentrations. The in-depth discussion of mechanisms, advantages, challenges, and carbon footprint of membrane technologies in water treatment and phenols retention demonstrated the great potential and trends for the production of safe drinking water, highlighting reverse osmosis, as a mature technology, and membrane distillation, as an emergent technology.

Numerical simulation of different pollutant control measures around an old landfill contaminated site: A field scale study

The remediation of contaminated soils is a great challenge for global environmental sciences and engineering. The landfill was a kind of infrastructure to deal with waste from different sources while it would also cause the threat to groundwater. Cut-off walls and pumping wells were usually applied in the landfill to prevent the spread of pollutants to wider areas. However, the combination of using both of methods was rarely analyzed, especially using field data for calibrating and fitting groundwater flow and pollutant transport. 7 monitoring wells were arranged in the study area to survey the subsurface seepage. The pollution monitoring was carried out for a period of 50 days, covering 31 types of inorganic and organic pollutants. The concentration of 2,4,6-trichlorophenol (TCP) was 556.7 times greater than the standard concentration. A coupled numerical model of groundwater flow and pollutant transport was developed to assess the effectiveness of various control methods. Three options were tested, including the implementation of a single cut-off wall as well as a combination of a cut-off wall and a pumping well, for preventing the discharge of pollutants from landfills. The combination of a cut-off wall and a pumping well is the best strategy for removal of TCP. The combination approaches lead to a reduction of pollution plumes by a factor of 11 compared to the case without pollution control measures. The research findings may provide a basis and reference for the application of cutoff walls and pumping well in landfill sites or contaminated groundwater.