Wastewater samples from a Swedish chemi-thermo-mechanical pulp (CTMP) mill collected at different purification stages in a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) were analyzed with an amperometric enzyme-based biosensor array in a flow-injection system. In order to resolve the complex composition of the wastewater, the array consists of several sensing elements which yield a multidimensional response. We used principal component analysis (PCA) to decompose the array's responses, and found that wastewater with different degrees of pollution can be differentiated. With the help of partial least squares regression (PLS-R), we could link the sensor responses to the Microtox® toxicity parameter, as well as to global organic pollution parameters (COD, BOD, and TOC). From investigating the influences of individual sensors in the array, it was found that the best models were in most cases obtained when all sensors in the array were included in the PLS-R model. We find that fast simultaneous determination of several global environmental parameters characterizing wastewaters is possible with this kind of biosensor array, in particular because of the link between the sensor responses and the biological effect onto the ecosystem into which the wastewater would be released. In conjunction with multivariate data analysis tools, there is strong potential to reduce the total time until a result is yielded from days to a few minutes.

AkzoNobel Industrial Coatings AB Staffanstorpsvägen 50 205 17 Malmö Sweden

Analytical Biochemistry Institute of Biochemistry and Biology University of Potsdam 14476 Golm Germany

AnoxKaldnes AB Klosterängsvägen 11A 226 47 Lund Sweden

Department of Biology Faculty of Dentistry and Medicine Palacký University Olumouc Hněvotínská 3 775 15 Olomouc Czech Republic

Department of Biomedical Science Faculty of Health and Society Malmö University Jan Waldenströms gata 25 205 06 Malmö Sweden

Department of Environmental Risk Assessment DHI Water and Environment Agern Allé 5 2970 Hørsholm Denmark

Department of Food Science Faculty of Science University of Copenhagen Rolighedsvej 30 1958 Frederiksberg Denmark

DTU Nanotech Department of Micro and Nanotechnology Technical University of Denmark Ørsteds Plads 2800 Kgs Lyngby Denmark

Fiberline Composites A S Barmstedt Allé 5 5500 Middelfart Denmark

Institute of Biochemistry Masaryk University Kotlářská 2 611 37 Brno Czech Republic

Umetrics AB Stortorget 21 211 34 Malmö Sweden

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