Monitoring endocrine activity in kraft mill effluent treated by aerobic moving bed bioreactor system

摘要

A Moving Bed Bioreactor (MBBR) was operated at three different hydraulic retention times forna period of 414 days. The fate of the extractive compounds and the estrogenic activity of thenPinus radiata kraft mill effluents were evaluated using Yeast Estrogen Screen (YES) and gasnchromatography – mass spectrometry (GC-MS) detection. Results show that the MBBR reactornis able to remove between 80–83% of estrogenic activity present in the kraft mill Pinus radiataninfluent, where the values of the effluent’s estrogenic activity ranged betweenn0.123–0.411 ng L21, expressed as estrogenic equivalent (EEqs) of 17-a-ethynylestradiol (EE2 eq.).nAdditionally, the biomass of the MBBR reactor accumulated estrogenic activity ranging betweenn0.29–0.37 ng EEqs EE2 during the different Hydraulic Retention Time (HRT) operations. The mainngroups present in pulp mills effluents, corresponding to fatty acids, hydrocarbons, phenols,nsterols and triterpenes, were detected by solid phase extraction (SPE) and gas chromatography –nmass spectrometry (GC-MS). The results suggest that the sterols produce the estrogenic activitynin the evaluated effluent.