Biotransformation of urea in the water of water bodies

Abstract

Introduction. The transformation of substances is an urgent problem of environmental hygiene. Urea (carbamide) is a product of human and animal life - enters water objects with household collector wastewater, surface runoff in areas that use urea as fertilizer, waste discharges from livestock complexes, and effluents of enterprises that produce carbamide. Two aspects of the problems associated with urea contamination of water bodies can be identified: the lack of a direct instrumental method for controlling urea and the lack of a comprehensive approach to controlling urea and its biotransformation products: ammonium, nitrites and nitrates. These two factors determined the relevance of the research. Materials and methods. The studies used the «Stayer» ionic chromatography system with anionic and cationic separation columns: Phenomenex Star-Ion A-300 100/4.6 USA; Shodex IC YS-50 150/4.6 Japan; when developing the urea analysis method, the «Aquilon» cationic column AQULINE C1P, 5µ,150/4.6 was used. The detection is conductometric and amperometric. The research objects were: surface, bottled, tap water, model water solutions of carbamide. As a urease source, the soil (sod-podzolic) from the Educational and Experimental Soil-Ecological Center of the Lomonosov Moscow State University “Chashnikovo” was used. Results. A new highly sensitive ion chromatographic method for determining urea in the water of various water bodies with a sensitivity of 5 mg/dm3 with direct sample input and using sample preparation - 0.5 mg/dm3 is proposed. The results of studies of model aqueous solutions of urea, surface water, tap water of Moscow, many bottled water samples on the content of urea and products of its biochemical transformation are presented. The presence of urea in the surface water and tap water of Moscow was revealed, and a correlation between the urea content and ammonium ions, nitrites and nitrates in the water was stated. Limitations of the study. The studies were carried out with waters whose total mineralization did not exceed 15 mg-eq/dm3 (water of river Don), and the urea content established in the water samples was not lower than 0.5 mg/dm3. Conclusion. When monitoring urea contamination of various water bodies, it is necessary to consider the products of its biotransformation under the action of urease, for as a result of the processes of urea biotransformation, a low-toxic substance can form more toxic products: nitrites, nitrates and ammonium. Applying the kinetic approach to study the processes of urea biotransformation in water under model conditions showed that the extreme type of kinetic curves corresponds to the formation of intermediate products - nitrites, and the increasing type corresponds to the formation and accumulation of final products - nitrates and ammonium ions.