Rapid and sensitive method for the simultaneous determination of PAHs and alkyl-PAHs in scrubber water using HS-SPME-GC-MS/MS

Abstract

Scrubber water, a waste stream generated by ships exhaust gas cleaning systems, may pose a threat when released into the marine environment due to potential contamination with poly- cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and their alkyl derivatives (alkyl-PAHs). This study aims to develop a reliable analytical procedure combining headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS- SPME) with gas chromatography coupled to triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) to simultaneously separate and determine target compounds in aqueous samples. Method validation demonstrated good linearity up to 200 ng L− 1 (r2 > 0.996) and low limits of detection (0.33 to 1.67 ng L− 1 , except for naphthalene at 3.3 ng L− 1 ). The method shows good precision (RSD < 20%) and satisfactory analytical recoveries. The methodology was successfully applied to scrubber water samples collected from a container ship and the results highlight the prevalence of naphthalene, phenanthrene, and their alkyl derivatives. Rapid and reproducible HS-SPME-GC-MS/MS method for the analysis of PAHs and alkyl-PAHs in scrubber water. The capacity of SPME to analyze both filtered and unfiltered samples was assessed, showing that the more hydrophobic PAHs may be lost during filtration

This study has been funded by the Horizon 2020 project EMERGE (Grant agreement ID: 874990). The authors are grateful to the company Danaos, and the researchers Leonidas Ntziachristos (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece), Andreas Gondikas (Creative Nano, Greece), Jana Moldanova (IVL, Sweden), Anna Lunde Hermansson and Erik Ytreberg (Chalmers University), and the whole team planning the field campaign for providing scrubber water samples, and to Maria Granberg and Kerstin Magnusson for highlighting the importance of alkyl-PAHs as target compounds in scrubber water. Meritxell Gros acknowledges her Ramon y Cajal contract (RYC2020-030324-I) funded by the MCIN/AEI 10.13039/501100011033 and by “ESF Investing in your future”. Authors also acknowledge the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), the Generalitat de Catalunya through the Consolidated Research Group (SGR ICRA-ENV 2021 01282) and the funding from CERCA program. The Gas Chromatograph coupled a triple quadrupole Mass Spectrometer system (GC–MS/MS) received support from the CERCA Institute through the CERCAGINYS program, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation