dc.description.abstract
For this Master Thesis the emission pathways of seven per- and polyfluoralkyl substances,perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), Perfluorohexanoic acid(PFHxA), Perfluoroheptanoic acid (PFHpA), perfluorohexane sulfonic acid, Perfluorononanoicacid (PFNA) and H4-perfluoro-n-octanesulfonic acid (6: 2 FTS) from households into the sewersystem were investigated with the material flow analysis. The processes “body care“, “textile useand textile washing“ and “sewerage“ were considered. With literature research the flows of goods and PFAS concentrations were determined, and material flows were calculated. Due to the lack of data, assumptions were made for the transfer coefficients independent of the substance. For the substance concentrations in the sewerage, sewage treatment plant intake, partly during dry weather (wastewater), were used.The calculated total input into the sewerage was compared with its output and afterwards anerror compensation calculation was performed using STAN. The input and output flows differedgreatly in some cases and only two substances showed an overlap between input and output. Furthermore, the error compensation calculations were only successful for five cases. For allother compounds, either too many values were missing, or material flows were negative. Due tomany open questions, an emission-based estimation about the load in the sewerage is currentlynot possible, even if the balance is conclusive for some substances.The comparison of the material flow analyses of different PFAS shows that the main pathwayof perfluorosulfonic acids into the household are textiles, while for perfluorocarboxylic acids they are imports from the process of “personal care“. Only perfluorooctanoic acid has notable inputs from personal care products, textiles and impregnating agents. The perfluorosulfonic acids,perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, which has been regulated for some time, and perfluorohexanesulfonicacid, are entering the system in far smaller amounts than the perfluorocarboxylic acids underconsideration. Especially the imports of “sunscreen“, “body lotion“, “concealer“, “carpets“, “curtains“, “shirts“and “pants“ are important PFAS inputs into households. In contrast, the material loads of “eyepencil“, “eyeliner“, “blankets“, “pillow case“, “down quilts“, “bath mats“, “bath robes“, “towels“and “tablecloths“ are rarely or never above zero resp. the limit of quantification. However, since in some cases there were too few values, further measurements are required, both at the goods and at the substance level, for more detailed results. Currently, there are several uncertainties in the results. In addition to the uncertainties due to missing data and the assumptions made, precursorsubstances also affect the results to an unknown extent. They are transformed via several intermediate steps into non-degradable compounds, such as those considered in this thesis.
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