The formation of estrogenic intermediates, i.e. nonylphenol diethoxylate (NP2EO), nonylphenol monoethoxylate (NP1EO), and nonylphenol (NP), following nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEOs) biodegradation in textile wastewater raises concerns about its endocrine disruptive activity, but the estrogenicity changes of textile wastewater throughout biological treatment processes remain unknown. In the present study, the estrogenicity of textile wastewater sampled from 10 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) were investigated using the reporter gene-based T47D-KBluc bioassay. Results showed that the estrogenicity of the textile wastewater significantly increased after either anaerobic or aerobic treatment in all WWTPs, with an average fold change of 3.21, although traditional pollutants were effectively removed. The estradiol equivalents of the effluent (ranging from 1.50 to 4.12 ng-E2/L) were generally higher than published effect based trigger values, indicating an increased risk for the receiving waters. Removal efficiency was high (84.46%) for NPEOs, but was low for NP2EO and NP1EO in the biological treatment processes. Nevertheless, NP had increased concentrations after the treatment. Bioanalytical equivalent concentration of the textile wastewater and that of NP2EO, NP1EO, and NP showed a good linear correlation, of which NP alone contributed more than 70% to the observed estrogenicity. Extending hydraulic retention time was found effective in reducing the estrogenicity as it allows relatively complete degradation of NP, which was further confirmed by running lab-scale A/O reactors fed with NP10EO. The results may extend our knowledge regarding the estrogenicity of textile wastewater and its reduction technologies used in WWTPs.

壬基酚乙氧基化物（NPEOs）在纺织品废水中的生物降解后，壬基酚二乙氧基化物（NP2EO），壬基酚单乙氧基化物（NP1EO）和壬基酚（NP）的形成会引起人们对其内分泌干扰活性的担忧，但纺织品废水的雌激素性变化整个生物处理过程仍然未知。在本研究中，使用基于报告基因的T47D-KBluc生物测定法研究了从10个废水处理厂（WWTP）采样的纺织废水的雌激素性。结果表明，在所有污水处理厂中，厌氧或好氧处理后，纺织废水的雌激素性均显着提高，平均倍数变化为3.21，尽管传统污染物得以有效去除。废水中的雌二醇当量（范围从1.50到4.12 ng-E2 / L）通常高于已发布的基于效应的触发值，表明接收水的风险增加。在生物处理过程中，NPEO的去除效率很高（84.46％），但是NP2EO和NP1EO的去除效率很低。然而，NP在治疗后浓度增加。纺织品废水的生物分析当量浓度以及NP2EO，NP1EO和NP的生物分析当量浓度显示出良好的线性相关性，其中仅NP对观察到的雌激素贡献超过70％。发现延长水力停留时间可有效降低雌激素性，因为它可以使NP相对完全降解，而运行装有NP10EO的实验室规模A / O反应器进一步证实了这一点。