Occurrence and removal of acesulfame and sucralose in the drinking water treatment plants along the Yangtze River

Acesulfame (ACE) and sucralose (SUC) are ideal sewage markers for drinking water. In this paper, 33 samples were collected from eight cities' drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs) along the Yangtze River to analyse the occurrence and removal of ACE and SUC. These two compounds were determined using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography–high resolution mass spectrometry. The limits of detection for ACE and SUC were 1.75 ng/L and 0.03 ng/L, respectively. The results showed that ACE and SUC existed widely in DWTPs along the Yangtze River. The concentration of ACE was 13–320 ng/L and the concentration of SUC was 200–1,592 ng/L. In general, the concentrations of ACE and SUC increased from upstream to downstream but decreased after water treatment procedures at every DWTP. In most DWTPs, a 9–30% removal of ACE and SUC was achieved using traditional chlorination disinfection technology. Ozonation combined with granular activated carbon filtration techniques had a high removal efficiency (63.8% for ACE and 50.2% for SUC).