Biodegradation of the photolysis products of Fe(III)EDTA

Abstract

Ethylenediaminetetraacetate (EDTA) is not biodegraded by activated sludge from a wastewater treatment plant. This work shows that after photolysis of FeIIIEDTA, easily degradable metabolites are formed. The OECDTest 302B yielded a 53% bioelimination with a sunlight irradiation time of 6.5 hours followed by a 4-week incubation. After 20 hours of sunlight irradiation, EDTA is bioeliminated to 92%. One of the photolytic degradation products, ethylenediaminediacetate (EDDA), has been quantitatively eliminated within 14 days following a lag-phase of 2 weeks. The photolysis of the iron complexes of the phosphonates ATMP and DTPMP did not result in biologically degradable metabolites. With these results, the environmental impact of EDTA can be re-evaluated emphasizing the amount and fate of FeIIIEDTA in the environment. FeIIIEDTAwas found to be present in effluents of wastewater treatment plants at fractions from 20 to 90% of the total EDTA. FeIIIEDTA has a half life of about 2 hours in sunlitwaters. Complexes of EDTAwith other metals do not exchange with iron and are photostable. Therefore, EDTA behaves like 2 different compounds: – FeIIIEDTA undergoes fast photolysis with biodegradation of the metabolites. – The other metal-EDTA complexes are persistent in the environment. Ecological arguments against the use of EDTA are therefore still valid for all EDTA-complexes except the one of Fe(III). However, Fe(III) complexes with the phosphonatesATMP and DTPMP do not exhibit such favorable properties over other metal-complexes, and so all arguments against the use of phosphonates are still valid.