This paper analyzes the fate of 71 priority and emerging organic contaminants all along the treatment trains of sewage sludge treatment facilities in Paris including dewatering by centrifugation, thermal drying and anaerobic digestion. It aimed at proposing and applying a mass balances calculation methodology to each process and pollutant. This data validation strategy demonstrated the complexity to perform representative inlet/outlet sampling and analysis campaigns at industrial scales regarding organic compounds and to propose options to overcome this issue. Centrifugation and drying processes only implied physical mechanisms as phase separation and water elimination. Hence, correct mass balance were expected observed for organic contaminants if sampling and analysis campaigns were representative. This was the case for hydrophobic and neutral compounds.
For the other more hydrophilic and charged compounds, the mass balances were scarcely correct. Thus, the conventional sampling and analytical practices used with sludge should be questioned and adapted to better take into account the high heterogeneity of sludge and the evolution of matrix effect within sludge treatment processes on micropollutant determination. For the biological anaerobic digestion process where degradations can occur and removals can be observed, the mass balances were deeply interpreted for 60 contaminants. This process contributed to the elimination above 70% of 21 detected compounds including 16 pharmaceuticals, 2 phthalates, 2 hormones and 1 perfluorinated compound. Removals of domperidone, propranolol, escitalopram, lidocaine, verapamil and cefoperazone under this condition were reported for the first time.
