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Zhang J, Liu ZH, Wu JL, Ding YT, Ma QG, Hayat W, Liu Y, Wang PJ, Dang Z, Rittmann B. Deconjugation potentials of natural estrogen conjugates in sewage and wastewater treatment plant: New insights from model prediction and on-site investigations. Sci Total Environ 2024; 926:172071. [PMID: 38554960 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.172071] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2023] [Revised: 03/23/2024] [Accepted: 03/27/2024] [Indexed: 04/02/2024]
Abstract
Natural estrogen conjugates play important roles in municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), but their deconjugation potentials are poorly understood. This work is the first to investigate the relationships between the enzyme activities of arylsulfatase/β-glucuronidase and deconjugation potentials of natural estrogen conjugates. This work led to three important findings. First, the enzyme activity of β-glucuronidase in sewage is far higher than that of arylsulfatase, while their corresponding activities in activated sludge were similar. Second, a model based on β-glucuronidase could successfully predict the deconjugation potentials of natural estrogen glucuronide conjugates in sewage. Third, the enzyme activity of arylsulfatase in sewage was too low to lead to evident deconjugation of sulfate conjugates, which means that the deconjugation rate of estrogen sulfates can be regarded as zero. By comparing their theoretical removal based on enzyme activity and on-site investigation, it is reasonable to conclude that reverse deconjugation of estrogen conjugates (i.e., conjugation of natural estrogens to form conjugated estrogens) likely exist in WWTP, which explains well why natural estrogen conjugates cannot be effectively removed in WWTP. Meanwhile, this work provides new insights how to improve the removal performance of WWTP on natural estrogen conjugates. SYNOPSIS: This work is the first to show how arylsulfatase/β-glucuronidase could affect deconjugation of natural estrogen conjugates and possible way to enhance their removal in wastewater treatment plant.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jun Zhang
- School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, Guangdong, China
| | - Ze-Hua Liu
- School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, Guangdong, China; Key Lab Pollution Control & Ecosystem Restoration in Industry Cluster, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou 510006, Guangdong, China; Guangdong Provincial Key Labora tory of Solid Wastes Pollution Control and Recycling, Guangzhou 510006, Guangdong, China.
| | - Jia-le Wu
- School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, Guangdong, China
| | - Yu-Ting Ding
- School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, Guangdong, China
| | - Qing-Guang Ma
- School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, Guangdong, China
| | - Waseem Hayat
- School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, Guangdong, China
| | - Yun Liu
- South China Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People's Republic of China, Guangzhou 510655, China
| | - Peng-Jie Wang
- Shijing Water Purification Branch, Guangzhou Water Purification Co. LTD, China
| | - Zhi Dang
- School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, Guangdong, China
| | - Bruce Rittmann
- Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology, Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, Tempe 85287-5701, AZ, United States
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Zhang J, Wan YP, Liu ZH, Wang H, Dang Z, Liu Y. Stability properties of natural estrogen conjugates in different aqueous samples at room temperature and tips for sample storage. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int 2022; 29:24589-24598. [PMID: 34825329 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-021-17377-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2021] [Accepted: 11/01/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
It is important to keep natural estrogen conjugates (C-NEs) intact in aqueous environmental sample before sample preparation; otherwise, this may influence the accurate determination of NEs. Therefore, this work thoroughly investigated the stability of C-NEs in three different aqueous environmental samples under four different storage conditions, room temperature, low temperature of 4 °C, low pH of 3, and addition of HgCl2 at 2 g/L. Results showed that C-NEs in aqueous sample were easily deconjugated under low temperature of 4 °C, which has been widely used in sample collection and storage. Both the low pH of 3 and addition of HgCl2 at 2 g/L under room temperature could keep C-NEs intact in domestic wastewaters and river water within 36 h, but the latter could keep C-NEs stable longer. This work is the first to show that low pH of 3 alone could keep C-NEs intact, which suggested that the combined condition at low temperature of 4 °C that has been widely used could be omitted. Meanwhile, compared to pH adjustment, addition of 2 g/L HgCl2 into aqueous sample is more convenient and practical for 24-h composite sampling, which may be widely applied.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jun Zhang
- School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, Guangdong, China
| | - Yi-Ping Wan
- School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, Guangdong, China
| | - Ze-Hua Liu
- School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, Guangdong, China.
- Key Lab Pollution Control & Ecosystem Restoration in Industry Cluster, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, 510006, Guangdong, China.
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Solid Wastes Pollution Control and Recycling, Guangzhou, 510006, Guangdong, China.
- Guangdong Provincial Engineering and Technology Research Center for Environment Risk Prevention and Emergency Disposal, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, Guangdong, China.
| | - Hao Wang
- School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, Guangdong, China
| | - Zhi Dang
- School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, Guangdong, China
| | - Yu Liu
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 639798, Singapore
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