Determination of sixteen polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in aqueous and solid samples from an Italian wastewater treatment plant

A robust procedure for the determination of 16 US EPA PAHs in both aqueous (e.g. wastewaters, industrial discharges, treated effluents) and solid samples (e.g. suspended solids and sludge) from a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) is presented. Recovery experiments using different percentages of organic modifier, sorbents and eluting solvent mixtures were carried out in Milli-Q water (1000 mL) spiked with a mixture of the PAH analytes (100 ng/L of each analyte). The solid phase extraction (SPE) procedures applied to spiked waste water samples (1000 mL; 100 ng/L spiking level) permitted simultaneous recovery of all the 16 PAHs with yields >70% (6–13% RSD). SPE clean up procedures applied to sewage and stabilized sludge extracts, showed percent recoveries in the range 73–92% (7–13% RSD) and 71–89% (7–12% RSD), respectively. The methods were used for the determination of PAHs in aqueous and solid samples from the WWTP of Fusina (Venice, Italy). Mean concentrations, as the sum of the 16 PAHs in aqueous and suspended solid samples, were found to be approx. in the 1.12–4.62 μg/L range. Sewage and stabilized sludge samples contained mean PAH concentrations, as sum of 16 compounds, in the concentration range of 1.44–1.26 mg/kg, respectively. Extraction and clean up procedures for sludge samples were validated using EPA certified reference material IRM-104 (CRM No. 912). Instrumental analyses were performed by coupling HPLC with UV-diode array detection (UV-DAD) and fluorescence detection (FLD).