Mass spectrometric monitoring of the degradation and elimination efficiency for hardly eliminable and hardly biodegradable polar compounds by membrane bioreactors.

Wastewaters containing or spiked with polar compounds--alkylphenolethoxylates (APEOs) and drugs--were treated in membrane-assisted and conventional biological pilot plants to eliminate these pollutants. Elimination resulting in metabolization or ultimate degradation was pursued by substance-specific analysis applying atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) in combination with mass and tandem mass spectrometric detection (MS and MS-MS) either in the flow injection (FIA) or liquid chromatographic separation (LC) mode. APEOs were diminished by successive cleavage of polyether chain links resulting in short chain APEOs or alkylphenols (AP), if the biocoenosis was adapted to the compounds. Lipid regulating agents (LRA) were either eliminated completely (etofibrate), metabolized to fenofibratic acid (fenofibrate) or diminished to a minimal extent (bezafibrate). Compared to the membrane microfiltration process the conventional activated sludge process was less successful in both APEO and LRA elimination.