Wastewater treatment alkylphenol ethoxylates

In general, the main pollution problems associated with surfactants can be summarized as (1) foaming in river and wastewater treatment plants [314,326, 344,348,349,356,357], (2) transformation to bioactive metabolites (i.e., poly-ethoxylated alkylphenols, estrogenic compounds) under aerobic and anaerobic conditions [315,356], and (3) formation of certain cationics which are toxic to microorganisms at high concentrations [356,357]. 

Nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEOs) are extensively used as surfactants in industrial products (see Chap. 1). NPEOs are a mixture of polyethoxylated mono-alkylphenols, predominantly para-substituted, and are used in the manufacturing of paints, detergents, inks, and pesticides [435, 446]. Surfactants are common water pollutants because of their use in aqueous solutions, which are discharged into the environment in the form of wastewater from treatment plants or sludge stored in landfills. Degradation products of alkylphenol polyethoxylates, i. e., nonylphenol (NP), have the potential to be bioaccumulated, thereby becoming toxic to aquatic [447] and soil microorganisms [435,448]. 

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