Comprehensive analysis of the toxic and refractory pollutants in acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene resin manufacturing wastewater by gas chromatography spectrometry with a mass or flame ionization detector

Acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene (ABS) resin manufacturing wastewater is a complicated, toxic and refractory industrial wastewater. Comprehensive and accurate analysis of the typical pollutants in ABS resin manufacturing wastewater is critical to develop cost-effective wastewater treatment technologies. In this paper, a comprehensively qualitative analysis combined with three complementary methods has been developed for the detection of typical pollutants in ABS resin manufacturing wastewater from three production sections, and thirty-seven compounds had been detected and further confirmed by this analysis method with standards. Simultaneous chromatographic separation and quantification of seven representative pollutants, including three mononuclear aromatics, three acrylonitrile dimers and one acrylonitrile derivative, were achieved by GC–FID system. The detection limits of this method for seven representative pollutants were in the range of 0.007–0.89 mg/L. The within-day and between-day precisions of this method were less than 6.5% (RSD, n = 6). The recoveries of the representative pollutants reached 90–120%. The ABS resin manufacturing wastewater from E zone was successfully determined by this method, with two mononuclear aromatics and three acrylonitrile dimers accounting for 57.73% and 40.63% of the selected seven compounds, respectively. These results reveal that the removal of mononuclear aromatics and acrylonitrile dimers is a key to treat this wastewater.

► Comprehensive qualitative analysis combined with three complementary methods has been developed.
► Thirty-seven compounds had been detected and confirmed in ABS resin manufacturing wastewater.
► Simultaneous chromatographic separation and quantification of seven typical pollutants were achieved.