<br/>The Australian environmental community are fast recognising per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) as a contaminant of emerging concern. Traditionally regulators have focussed on a small range of legacy perfluoro carboxylic acids and sulfonates measuring them in environmental matrices. However, to date over 3000 PFAS have been produced and distributed internationally. It is becoming apparent that unidentified PFAS are present in environmental matrices having unknown effect. Worldwide wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) have been recognised as a source of PFAS to the environment. Few studies on newer fluorinated compounds in WWTPs have been produced with only limited data available on PFAS in Australian WWTPs. Influent and Effluent at three Australian WWTPs were extracted and analysed utilising unique workflows to identify anionic PFAS. Targetted analysis was performed using LC MS/MS to quantify a range of PFCAs, PFSAs and FTSs. The samples were then screened for unknown PFAS on LC-QTOF using a custom database with various levels of verification. Finally, software tools such as MassHunter molecular feature extractor (MFE), mass profile professional (MPP) and molecular structure correlator (MSC) were used to propose and identify fluorinated compounds in the wastewater samples not present in the database. This study provides further insight into PFAS cycling and emissions in Australian WWTPs for use by environmental regulators.<br/>

Targeted and untargeted analysis of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in Australian wastewater treatment plants

255th National Meeting (2018)

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