A modified method for the analysis of organics in industrial wastewater as directed by their toxicity to Vibrio fischeri

Abstract

A method for the identification of toxic compounds in industrial wastewater is presented, consisting of sequential solid phase extraction (SPE), fractionation by HPLC and GC-MS for compound identification. All analytical steps are accompanied by an automated detection of the aquatic toxicity by luminescence inhibition of Vibrio fischeri, which helps to reduce the large number of samples and subsamples that have to be processed by exluding those without toxic effects. The advantages of this procedure in comparison to previous methods of toxicity directed water analysis are discussed. The procedure was successfully applied to various samples of tannery wastewater, showing that benzothiazoles account for the major toxicity of tanyard wastewater. For very polar wastewater constituents, such as in beamhouse wastewaters, the use of LC-MS/MS for the final compound identification is suggested.