Journal article
Sampling for representative micropollutant loads in sewer systems.
- 2006-11-24
Published in:
- Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research. - 2006
Carbamazepine
Detergents
Environmental Monitoring
Models, Theoretical
Sewage
Triazoles
Water Pollutants, Chemical
English
Most commercially available auto-sampling devices do not support a continuous flow-proportional sampling mode, which would conceptually be the best for collecting representative composite samples. Instead different discrete sampling modes are available. Household chemicals can show considerable random short-term variations. With the anticorrosive benzotriazole, relating to a middle-frequent household activity, we show that, besides an accurate flow meter, mainly three factors are decisive for the representativeness of a substance's average load: the substance's load pattern, the sampling frequency and the length of the composite sample. When the sampling intervals are 10 minutes or longer, errors in the order of +/-40% (standard deviation) or more have to be accepted, if the substance of interest is contained in a low number of wastewater pulses (i.e., the level of household activity). This particularly holds true for specific pharmaceuticals e.g. carbamazepine. Ammonium would be less critical, because it relates to a larger number of sources in the same catchment.
- Language
-
- English
- Open access status
- closed
- Identifiers
-
- DOI 10.2166/wst.2006.591
- PMID 17120647
- Persistent URL
- https://sonar.ch/global/documents/139819
Statistics
Document views: 35
File downloads: