Water and Effluent Treatment Magazine
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16 WET NEWS MAY 2016 A single water sample can contain thousands different types of molecules, making it harder to identify potential risks. The challenge: Hunting for unknown molelcules INSIGHT Filtration & screening Measurement data from water analysts will remain available for future evaluations D ay in, day out harmful substances leech into the ground and detergents are flushed down the drain. On top of this come natural substances from the environment. A single environ- mentally relevant water sample contains up to several thousand different organic molecules. But what are these substances? More than 8,000 molecule profiles have already been A solution: Molecular fingerprinting Experts establish worldwide strategy for preventative water sample analysis. T o solve this problem, water specialists at the Bavarian Environmental Agency (LfU), the University of Applied Sciences Weihenste- phan-Triesdorf (HSWT), the Baden-Württemberg special purpose water supply associa- tion Landeswasserversorgung and the TUM have developed the STOFF-IDENT database. This database was developed in the context of the RISK-IDENT project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). It was completed in March 2015 and now contains more than 8,000 substances, together with their key chemical and physical characteristics. The database includes REACH-reg- istered industrial chemicals, approved pharmaceuticals, pes- ticides and other substances from everyday products used by humans. It also lists degrada- tion products found in the envi- ronment, like metabolites or transformation products. THE CONCEPT • FOR-IDENT aims to extend the database to include locally approved and utilised chemicals • An open software platform in which the different evaluation strategies are combined and linked will evolve over the project lifespan • Laboratories, authorities and public works only need to archive the results of their analyses, not the actual samples. NEED TO KNOW 1 FOR-IDENT is part of the BMBF-funded project Risk Management for New Harmful Substances and Pathogens in the Water Cycle 2 More than 8,000 molecule profiles have already been stored in a public database 3 A key goal is screening to prevent or quickly identify potential risks THE VERDICT "This will lay the foundation for a preventative water control system that will be deployed more and more as the number of new evaluation strategies grows" Prof Thomas Letzel stored in a public database for future analysis. This prevent- ative water screening system is now being expanded internationally and harmonised with further strategies in the FOR-IDENT project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The available options for quickly identifying unknown molecules in water have been limited in the past. But the principle of preventative screening is essential when testing surface waters, which frequently serve as drinking water sources. A key goal is "screening to prevent or at least quickly identify potential risks". Chemical analyses show that a single water sample can contain thousands different types of molecules. These substances stem from the surrounding environment, but are also introduced by humans in the form of industrial chemicals, pesticides, medic- ations and household chemicals, as well as their respective degradation pro- ducts. The amounts and composition of these molecules vary from region to region and from country to country, depending on the indigenous vegetation and the drugs, pesticides and chemicals approved for local use. "Today, scientists can identify at most a few hundred of these thousands of molecules in routine analyses – and ožen only in specialised laboratories," explains Prof Thomas Letzel, from the Chair of Urban Water Systems Engineering at Technische Universität München. "Yet many labs already have the technology to carry out these Using this data, screening laboratories can identify unknown molecules faster. The technology deployed is referred to as non-target screening and generates "molecular finger- prints" that reflect the polarity and molecular mass of each identified molecule. "The prop- erties stored in the database will now enable testers to iden- tify a large number of previ- ously unknown molecules, even in non-target screenings," says Prof Thomas Letzel. The follow-up project FOR- IDENT, which is funded by the BMBF until 2017, aims to extend the database to include locally approved and utilised chemi- cals in the respective locations. The scientists also hope to bun- dle and harmonise all interna- tionally used evaluation strate- gies. The project will include the manufacturers of analytical instruments, as well as labora- tories worldwide. An open sož- ware platform in which the dif- ferent evaluation strategies are combined and linked will evolve over the project lifespan. The open-access approach will ensure that companies, authori- ties and scientific institutions will have long-term, free and unlimited access to the evalua- tion tools and databases. Data from measurements carried out by water analysts will remain available for future evaluations. This has a number of advantages. For example, when information is added to the database or new evaluation strategies are developed, previ- ously taken samples must not be analysed anew – the acquired data can retrospec- tively be analysed. Laboratories and authorities only need to archive the analysis results, not the samples. Consider the example of a trace substance that is identi- fied as potentially harmful to marine life or as a threat to human health in drinking water: If the substance in ques- tion is found in archived samples, this information can be rapidly integrated into rou- tine tests. This will also make it possible to determine where the substance entered the water and in which concentrations; and whether technical recovery measures need to be initiated. "This will lay the foundation for a preventative water control system that will be deployed more and more as the number of new evaluation strategies grows," confirms Letzel. A remaining challenge is ensuring that the analysis methods are deployed effec- tively so that structures can be determined and the respective substances identified conclu- sively. The aim of the FOR- IDENT project is, thus, to improve the efficiency and com- parability of suspect and non- target analyses. To this end, the available tools will be bundled, quality requirements for the methodology defined and the processes and methodologies standardised. analyses – even non- specialised control labs. The problem usually lies in the lack of strategic solutions for assessing the results."