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The relevance of physicochemical and biological parameters for setting emission limit values for plants treating complex industrial wastewaters

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Abstract

The influents of plants treating complex industrial wastewaters from third parties may contain a large variety of often unknown or unidentified potentially harmful substances. The conventional approach of assessing and regulating the effluents of these plants is to set emission limit values for a limited set of physicochemical parameters, such as heavy metals, biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand and adsorbable organic halogen compounds. The objective of this study was to evaluate the relevance of physicochemical parameters for setting emission limit values for such plants based on a comparison of effluent analyses by physicochemical and biological assessment tools. The results show that physicochemical parameters alone are not sufficient to evaluate the effectiveness of the water treatment plants for removing hazardous compounds and to protect the environment. The introduction of toxicity limits and limits for the total bioaccumulation potential should be considered to supplement generic parameters such as chemical oxygen demand and adsorbable organic halogens. A recommendation is made to include toxicity screening as a technique to consider in the determination of best available techniques (BAT) during the upcoming revision of the BAT reference document for the waste treatment industries to provide a more rational basis in decisions on additional treatment steps.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Flemish Region for supporting our work in the framework of the BBT/EMIS project and our colleagues for providing innumerable ideas and suggestions during the development of the methodology and the preparation of this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. VITO, Boeretang 200, 2400, Mol, Belgium

    Diane Huybrechts, Reinhilde Weltens, Griet Jacobs, Ab Borburgh, Toon Smets & Caroline Polders

  2. Flemish Environmental Agency, A. Van de Maelestraat 96, 9320, Erembodegem, Belgium

    Lut Hoebeke

Authors
  1. Diane Huybrechts
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  2. Reinhilde Weltens
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  3. Griet Jacobs
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  4. Ab Borburgh
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  5. Toon Smets
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  6. Lut Hoebeke
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  7. Caroline Polders
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Correspondence to Diane Huybrechts.

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Responsible editor: Bingcai Pan

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Huybrechts, D., Weltens, R., Jacobs, G. et al. The relevance of physicochemical and biological parameters for setting emission limit values for plants treating complex industrial wastewaters. Environ Sci Pollut Res 21, 2805–2816 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-013-2219-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-013-2219-3

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