Chemical fingerprinting of organic micropollutants in different industrial treated wastewater effluents and their effluent-receiving river

Industry wastewater is considered one of the worst polluters of our precious water ecologies. However, the types of pollutants present in wastewater from industrial wastewater treatment plants (IWTPs) are still unclear. In this study, a simple and effective chemical fingerprinting method for checking the source-sink relationships among different industrial wastewaters and their effluent-receiving river was established. 107, 228, 155, and 337 chemicals were screened out in wastewater from electronics, steel, textile, and printing and dyeing plants, respectively. Chemical fingerprinting of the detected chemicals was performed, and results showed that aromatic compounds were the most prevalent among the pollutant categories (i.e., 56, 189, and 168 in electronics, iron and steel, and printing and dyeing plants, respectively). The traceability analysis of the chemicals selected in the effluent determined the characteristic pollutants of different industrial enterprises. Sixty-eight compounds were identified as the characteristic pollutants in the different process stages of wastewater of the four IWTPs. Of the 84 effluent-receiving river water signature pollutants, 47.6% (n = 40) were also detected in the effluent from the four IWTPs. Effective screening of organic pollutants in industrial wastewater and determining their sources will help accelerate the improvement of industrial wastewater treatment technology.