Introduction of a small volume ethyl acetate based liquid-liquid extraction procedure for analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in wastewater by atmospheric pressure gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and evaluation of method greenness.

The Small Volume Ethyl Acetate based Liquid-Liquid Extraction (SVEA-LLE) method, using Atmospheric Pressure Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (APGC-MS/MS) with Dual Head Robotic Tool Change (DH-RTC) Prep and Load (PAL) autosampler, was evaluated for the analysis of 17 PAHs in water and wastewater. The extraction method was first evaluated for extraction efficiency with respect to time using a one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and the effect of acidification. Method validation was performed as per SANTE/11312/2021 v2 2024 for analysis of PAHs in wastewater.