Andreja Zgajnar Gotvajn
University of Ljubljana, Slovenian
Title: Environmental impact assessment and bio-treatability potential of deep eutectic solvent based on holing chloride
Biography
Biography: Andreja Zgajnar Gotvajn
Abstract
In the recent years, there has been intensive development of non-hazardous solvents and reaction media, able to replace common organic compounds which are possible aquatic contaminants due to their toxicity, volatility and persistency. As a result, Eutectic Solvents (ES) were introduced. However, they could spread widely by wastewaters and affect large areas in terms of acute and chronic toxicity. Because treatment of waste-water is usually based on biological processes the aim of the presented research focuses on the determination of the impact caused by the addition of selected ES to the aerobic WasteWater Treatment Plant (WWTP). Selected ES is based on choline chloride and malonic acid. Biodegradability of is usually determined using various non-standardized laboratory or pilot-scale long-term tests with activated sludge. First, its toxicity to microorganisms of activated sludge was and expanded also to other species, important for evaluation of environmental impact of selected ES. Then its biodegradability in common environmental conditions was determined to assess its pathways in natural environmental compartments. Then the pilot experiment was started with setting up pilot aerobic WWTP, feed by synthetic municipal wastewater and its efficiency was monitored using several parameters. After steady-state operation of WWTP was achieved, the increasing amount of ES was added in the influent and treatment efficiency was monitored continuously for 77 days. It has been confirmed that although the toxicity of ES to microorganisms was quite high, the impact ofthe biological treatment plant at the same concentrations was negligible.