Abstract:
A method based on headspace and capillary gas chromatography with flame ionization detector technique was validated for the
simultaneous determination of five individual aromatic volatile pollutants: benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, m/p-xylene and oxylene.
The validation took in consideration liniarity, accuracy, precision, limit of detection, limit of quantification and
uncertainty estimation criteria and concluded that the proposed method is suitable to determine the pollutants of interest. The
samples were taken from the effluent of petrochemical wastewater treatment plant before, during and after the tertiary biological
treatment. The concentrations of the volatile aromatic pollutants in all analysed samples have been found below the internal
quality procedure requirements (1 µg/L for benzene and 10 µg/L for its derivatives). It was noticed that the concentration
decreases during the tertiary treatment. In the samples of the discharged effluent in the Black Sea the concentrations of all
determined compounds were under the limit of detection.