0000000001262870
AUTHOR
Tuula Tuhkanen
showing 18 related works from this author
Step-by-step analysis of drinking water treatment trains using size-exclusion chromatography to fingerprint and track protein-like and humic/fulvic-l…
2019
This paper provides a glimpse into the removal of dissolved organic matter (DOM) during conventional drinking water treatment and evaluates the potential of high-performance size-exclusion chromatography (HPSEC) as a supplementary tool for routine monitoring of drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs). Two DWTPs in Central Finland were systematically evaluated using HPSEC with simultaneous UV and fluorescence detection. For tyrosine-like, tryptophan-like, and humic/fulvic-like DOM fractions of various molecular weight (MW) values, the total and step-by-step removal efficiencies were estimated along the treatment trains. Overall, both DWTPs removed ∼70% of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and r…
Pineapple peel biochar and lateritic soil as adsorbents for recovery of ammonium nitrogen from human urine.
2021
Abstract Human urine is a rich source of nitrogen which can be captured to supplement the existing sources of nitrogen fertilizers thus contributing to enhanced crop production. However, urine is the major contributor of macronutrients in municipal wastewater flows resulting into eutrophication of the receiving water bodies. Herein, pineapple peel biochar (PPB), and lateritic soil (LS) adsorbents were prepared for the safe removal of ammonium nitrogen (NH4+-N) from human urine solutions. Physicochemical properties of PPB, and LS were characterized by scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy…
Mass loading, distribution, and removal of antibiotics and antiretroviral drugs in selected wastewater treatment plants in Kenya.
2020
The discharge of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) into the aquatic environment from wastewater effluents is a concern in many countries. Although many studies have been conducted to evaluate the APIs removal efficiencies and emissions to the environment in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), most of these studies considered the aqueous and sludge phases, disregarding the suspended particulate matter (SPM) phase. To try to understand the role of the SPM, the occurrence of five most common antibiotics and three antiretroviral drugs (ARVDs) commonly used in Kenya were investigated in this study. APIs partitioning and mass loading in influents and effluents of three different WWTPs: tr…
Step-by-step analysis of drinking water treatment trains using size-exclusion chromatography to fingerprint and track protein-like and humic/fulvic-l…
2019
This paper provides a glimpse into the removal of dissolved organic matter (DOM) during conventional drinking water treatment and evaluates the potential of high-performance size-exclusion chromatography (HPSEC) as a supplementary tool for routine monitoring of drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs). Two DWTPs in Central Finland were systematically evaluated using HPSEC with simultaneous UV and fluorescence detection. For tyrosine-like, tryptophan-like, and humic/fulvic-like DOM fractions of various molecular weight (MW) values, the total and step-by-step removal efficiencies were estimated along the treatment trains. Overall, both DWTPs removed ∼70% of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and r…
Monitoring WWTP performance using size-exclusion chromatography with simultaneous UV and fluorescence detection to track recalcitrant wastewater frac…
2018
Abstract A trial monitoring of a typical full-scale municipal WWTP in Central Finland was aimed to explore applicability of high performance liquid chromatography – size exclusion chromatography (HPSEC) with simultaneous UV and fluorescence detection as a tool for advanced routine monitoring of wastewater treatment. High, intermediate, and low molecular weight (MW) fractions of untreated wastewater (influent) and treated wastewater (secondary effluent) were characterized in terms of UV absorbance at 254 nm (UVA254) and specific fluorescence representing tyrosine-like, tryptophan-like, and humic/fulvic-like compounds. The activated sludge treatment removed 97 ± 1% of BOD, 93 ± 2% of COD, 71 …
Contamination of Surface Water and River Sediments by Antibiotic and Antiretroviral Drug Cocktails in Low and Middle-Income Countries: Occurrence, Ri…
2020
Presence of antimicrobial cocktails in the hydrological cycles is of interest because of their potential to mediate antimicrobial resistance within the natural environment. In this study, we determined the concentrations of selected antibiotics and antiretroviral drugs (ARVDs) in wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent, effluent suspended particulate matter (SPM), surface waters and river sediments in Kenya in order to determine the extent of pollution within the sampled environment. Target analysis for the most common antibiotics and ARVDs was done. Sulfamethoxazole (SMX), ciprofloxacin (CIP), trimethoprim (TMP), norfloxacin (NOR), zidovidine (ZDV), lamivudine (3TC) and nevirapine (NVP)…
Phosphorous removal from human urine using lateritic soil
2023
Phosphorous (P) in human urine is among the macronutrients in municipal wastewater that has exacerbated eutrophication of water bodies. Adsorption of P from wastewater using cost effective, environmentally friendly, and efficient adsorbents is considered as an attractive method that can both mitigate the eutrophication problem and augment the already strained P reserves. In the present study the adsorption capacity and structural properties of lateritic soil (LS), the adsorbent for removal of P from human urine, was investigated using XRF, SEM, TGA and FTIR techniques. Batch adsorption experiments were conducted to determine various adsorption parameters such as the sorption rates, the conc…
Occurrence of antibiotics and antiretroviral drugs in source-separated urine, groundwater, surface water and wastewater in the peri-urban area of Chu…
2020
Recently, there has been an increased interest in bridging the knowledge gap in the occurrence and fate of pharmaceuticals in African urban water cycles. In this study, the occurrence of 7 antibiotics and 3 antiretrovirals in source-separated urine, groundwater, wastewater and surface water of the peri-urban area of Chunga in Lusaka, Zambia, was studied. In groundwater, the pharmaceuticals were only sporadically present with 4 antibiotics and 1 antiretroviral detected. The concentration of the antibiotics ranged from below limit of quantification (<LOQ) to 880 ng/L, with sulfamethoxazole having the highest detection frequency of 42.3%. In the surface water, a comparatively high concentrati…
Removal of selected antibiotics and antiretroviral drugs during post‐treatment of municipal wastewater with UV, UV/chlorine and UV/hydrogen peroxide
2020
Active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are only partially removed by convectional wastewater treatment plants. This study aimed at assessing the post‐treatment degradation of selected antibiotics and antiretroviral drugs by direct UV photolysis and advanced oxidation processes (UV/H2O2 and UV/Cl2) using low‐pressure mercury lamp. The rate of degradation largely followed pseudo first‐order reaction kinetics. Amongst the six studied APIs, sulfamethoxazole, ciprofloxacin and zidovudine were readily degraded by more than 90% using direct UV photolysis. Addition of Cl2 and H2O2 to the UV process led to an increase in the rate of degradation for all the compounds. The effectiveness UV/Cl2 proce…
A multiresidue analytical method for trace level determination of antibiotics and antiretroviral drugs in wastewater and surface water using SPE-LC-M…
2016
An analytical method for simultaneous determination of seven commonly used antibiotics and three antiretrovirals in surface water and urban wastewater at the ng L−1 level has been developed. The method involves concentration and clean-up by solid phase extraction (SPE) followed by identification and quantification by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS). The use of matrix-matched calibration curves constructed by spiking surface water was evaluated for quantification and compared with the internal standard method using isotopically labelled compounds. The method gave absolute recoveries of 41–116% with most of the compounds having recoveries >50%. The LOQs ranged fr…
HPLC-SEC: a new approach to characterise complex wastewater effluents
2016
ABSTRACTThis work investigates the use of HPLC-SEC to characterise dissolved organic matter (DOM) of complex wastewater effluents. A silica-based column, sodium acetate eluent and multiple detections were employed: UV-254 absorbance for humictype, and tryptophan-like (Ex/Em = 270/355) and tyrosine-like (Ex/Em = 270/310) fluorescence for protein type compounds. Effects of eluent pH, eluent ionic strength and injection volume on separation efficiency were tested. Humic-type and protein-type fractions were clearly differentiated and eluted within and out of calibration range. Eluent ionic strength had the greatest influence on global resolution; the lowest eluent concentration of 0.01 M produc…
Occurrence of selected antibiotics and antiretroviral drugs in Nairobi River Basin, Kenya.
2015
In this paper, we investigated the occurrence of three antibiotics (sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim and ciprofloxacin) and three antiretroviral (lamivudine, nevirapine and zidovudine) drugs in the Nairobi River Basin, Kenya. The analytical procedure involved extraction using solid phase extraction followed by liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (SPE-LC-ESI-MS/MS). In this study, 40 sites were selected for sampling, including 38 sites along the rivers and 2 wastewater treatment effluent sites. All the studied compounds were detected with sulfamethoxazole having the highest detection frequency of 97.5% and ciprofloxacin had the lowest at 60%. The results show…
Occurrence of antibiotics and risk of antibiotic resistance evolution in selected Kenyan wastewaters, surface waters and sediments
2019
Active pharmaceutical ingredients, especially antibiotics, are micropollutants whose continuous flow into hydrological cycles has the potential to mediate antibiotic resistance in the environment and cause toxicity to sensitive organisms. Here, we investigated the levels of selected antibiotics in four wastewater treatment plants and the receiving water bodies. The measured environmental concentrations were compared with the proposed compound-specific predicted no-effect concentration for resistance selection values. The concentration of doxycycline, amoxicillin, sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim, ciprofloxacin and norfloxacin within the influents, effluents, surface waters and river sediments…
Occurrence, distribution, and risk assessment of pharmerciuticals in wastewater and open surface drains of peri-urban areas: Case study of Juja town,…
2020
Abstract The occurrence of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) in the environment is becoming a major area of concern due to their undesirable effects on non-target organisms. This study investigated the occurrence and risk of contamination by five antibiotics and three antiretrovirals drugs in a fast-growing peri-urban area in Kenya, with inadequate sewer system coverage. Due to poor sewage connectivity and poorly designed decentralized systems, wastewater is directly released in open drains. Water and sediment samples were collected from open surface water drains, while wastewater samples were collected from centralized wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). Solid-phase extraction and u…
Simultaneous detection of three antiviral and four antibiotic compounds in source-separated urine with liquid chromatography
2013
An analytical method for the simultaneous screening of three antiviral agents (nevirapine, zidovudine, lamivudine), four antibiotics (sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim, ciprofloxacin, rifampicin) and one reference compound (carbamazepine) in human urine was developed. Separation was achieved with a Kinetex XB-C18 (75 × 4.6 mm, 2.6 μm) column after the extraction of pharmaceuticals from urine with SPE. Gradient elution with a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile and 10 mM KH2 PO4 (pH 2.5), and diode array detection with monitoring at 210 and 264 nm was applied. The developed method was validated in terms of selectivity, linearity, stability and sensitivity. Repeatability (n = 3) and between-…
Environmental remediation using nanomaterial as adsorbents for emerging micropollutants
2023
Water shortage and scarcity are issues of global concern. Water pollution caused by organic micropollutants further aggravates the problem, by rendering an already scarce resource unfit for human consumption. The existing conventional wastewater treatment methods and infrastructure were not designed to eliminate micropollutants. Therefore, their inefficiencies call for modern methods for removing emerging micropollutant residues such as Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), Endocrine Disrupting Compounds (EDCs), personal care products and pesticides. The use of nanomaterials, for the abatement of micropollutants in water is gaining traction in recent years, due to the abundance of susta…
UV/VIS spectroscopy as a method to characterize well water quality. [UV/VIS-spektroskopi som metod att karakterisera brunnsvattenkvalité]
2016
The applicability of UV/VIS spectroscopy for the characterization of well water quality was studied by analyzing 219 private wells from sparsely populated areas of Finland. In addition to conventional water quality indicators, such as conductivity, nitrate and DOC, a series of UV/VIS spectroscopic parameters were determined: A-224, A-254, A-280, A-365, A-436, the area under 250–350 nm, the area under 250–500 nm, SUVA-254, Molar Absorbance-280, Specific Color, A2/A3 and A2/A4, in order to find the most proper surrogate for the organic matter amount and the best indicator of organic matter quality. Three parameters, A-254, A-280 and the area under 250–350 nm were found to be applicable as sur…
Monitoring WWTP performance using size-exclusion chromatography with simultaneous UV and fluorescence detection to track recalcitrant wastewater frac…
2018
A trial monitoring of a typical full-scale municipal WWTP in Central Finland was aimed to explore applicability of high performance liquid chromatography – size exclusion chromatography (HPSEC) with simultaneous UV and fluorescence detection as a tool for advanced routine monitoring of wastewater treatment. High, intermediate, and low molecular weight (MW) fractions of untreated wastewater (influent) and treated wastewater (secondary effluent) were characterized in terms of UV absorbance at 254 nm (UVA254) and specific fluorescence representing tyrosine-like, tryptophan-like, and humic/fulvic-like compounds. The activated sludge treatment removed 97 ± 1% of BOD, 93 ± 2% of COD, 71 ± 7% of D…