Metal Fractionation in Snowmelt Runoff : A Comparison between Ultrafiltration and Diffusive Gradients in Thin Films (DGT) techniques

Sammanfattning: Urban runoff is a non-point pollution source deteriorating water quality of natural watersystems. The composition of urban runoff vary depending on land use, seasonal changes anddifferent surfaces that come into contact with the water. Urban runoff often contain metals andAl, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb and Zn are of particular concern for the environment due to theirpotential toxicity. Metals in runoff can be present in different phases, associated with particles,colloids of different sizes or dissolved in the free phase. The different phases vary in size butalso overlap each other. Information about metal phases and species in runoff is essential tounderstanding metal transport and design runoff treatment systems.Membrane filtration followed by ultrafiltration is an established technique to distinguish theparticulate, colloidal and truly dissolved fractions. However, the “truly dissolved” fraction mayconstitute of the free phase, colloidal phase or both of them since the technique onlydiscriminates by size. Diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) is a relatively new technique thatmeasures the labile fraction, sometimes referred to as the most bioavailable fraction. The labilefraction includes free metal ions and small complexes available to diffuse through a diffusivelayer under a reasonable period of time. Kinetically inert species are discriminated.The scope of this thesis was to investigate metal fractionation in snowmelt runoff from differenturban surfaces using two techniques, ultrafiltration and DGT. An additional aim was to studythe speciation described by the two techniques in the different types of runoff. Two types ofrunoff were sampled to conduct measurements on. Runoff from well-defined catchments (anindustrial area and a parking lot) and roof runoff from two roofing materials (zinc and coppersheet). In total, four runoff samples were membrane filtrated (pore size 0.45 μm) followed byeither ultrafiltration (delimiting 3 kNMWL) or DGT measurements in the laboratory. Analysisof metals was conducted in all steps and pH, electric conductivity, total suspended solids andtotal organic carbon was measured in the untreated samples.The results show that metal concentrations were generally higher in the catchment runoffcompared to the roof runoff with few exceptions, Cu and Pb from copper roof and Zn from zincroof. Regarding fractionation, the two types of runoff showed similarities when it came tometals mainly bound to particles. The metals that were abundant in several phases showeddifferent fractionations between the catchment runoff and the roof runoff. The metals releasedin roof runoff was to a higher extent found as free ions compared with the catchment runoff. Adiscussion was held about the different metal fractions and treatment possibilities. Comparingthe two techniques, the DGT measurements could be used to further interpret the results fromthe ultrafiltration regarding the colloidal and free phase.