The utilization of reclaimed water is a reliable and sustainable approach to enhance water supply in water-deficient cities. However, the presence of micro-organic pollutants (MPs) in reclaimed water has potential adverse effects on aquatic ecosystems and human health. In this study, we investigated the occurrence of 12 target MPs in the influent and reclaimed water collected from a local wastewater treatment plant, and the ultraviolet (UV)–chlorine process was applied to analyze its ability to remove MPs. The results showed that all 12 MPs were detected in both the influent and the reclaimed water, with the concentrations ranging from 25.5 to 238 ng/L and 8.6 to 42.5 ng/L, respectively. Over 52% of all the target MPs were readily degraded by the UV–chlorine process, and the removal efficiency was 7.7% to 64.2% higher than the corresponding removal efficiency by chlorination or UV irradiation only. The degradation efficiency increased with the increasing initial chlorine concentration. The pH value had a slight influence on the MP degradation and exhibited different trends for different MPs. The formation of known disinfectant byproducts (DBPs) during the UV–chlorine process was 33.8% to 68.4% of that in the chlorination process, but the DBPs’ formation potentials were 1.3 to 2.2 times higher. The toxicity assay indicated that UV–chlorine can effectively reduce the toxicity of reclaimed water.Keywords:MPs;UV–chlorine process;disinfectant byproducts;toxicity
Membrane fouling , primarily resulting from natural organic matter (NOM) widely existing in water sources, has always been a chief hindrance for the prevalent application of ultrafiltration (UF). Thus, vacuum ultraviolet (VUV)/chlorine process was proposed as a strategy for UF membrane fouling control and ultraviolet (UV)/chlorine process was used for comparison. VUV/chlorine process exhibited more excellent performance on NOM removal than UV/chlorine process. [HO•]ss and [Cl•]ss were calculated as 1.26 × 10 −13 and 3.06 × 10 −14 M, respectively, and ClO• might not exist under the conditions of 0.08 mM chlorine and 30 min VUV irradiation. [HO•]ss, [Cl•]ss and [ClO•]ss were not available and the formation of reactive radicals was unsustainable in UV/chlorine system. Moreover, VUV/chlorine pretreatment also showed better performance on the reversible and irreversible membrane fouling control than UV/chlorine pretreatment. The dominated fouling mechanism in the final stage of filtration was cake filtration. Additionally, the amount of detected disinfection by-products (DBPs) in VUV/chlorine system was significantly lower than that in UV/chlorine system. During subsequent chlorination disinfection, the yield of DBPs with VUV/chorine pretreatment was higher than that with UV/chlorine pretreatment. VUV/chlorine pretreatment could effectively control DBPs formation when the pretreatment time was extended to 120 min. In summary, VUV/chlorine system presented a most excellent performance on membrane fouling control, NOM degradation and DBPs control.
Xinran Zhang,Pengfei Ren,Jianhua Zhou,Junyi Li,Zhenxing Li,Ding Wang
This study investigated the formation of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) from a real ammonia-polluted source water treated by a pilot-scale ultraviolet (UV)/chlorine process with subsequent post-chlorination. The experimental results indicated that UV/chlorine treatment enhanced the formation of trihalomethanes (THMs), haloacetic acids (HAAs), and haloacetonitriles (HANs) in post-chlorination, compared to UV or chlorine applied alone under parallel experimental conditions. DBP formation was observed to depend on pH values, chlorine doses, and reaction times. THM formation was higher at pH 9.0 than pH 6.0, while HAAs and HANs were produced more readily at pH 6.0 rather than 9.0. A higher chlorine dose led to a higher amount of DBPs formed after the treatment of UV/chlorine followed by post-chlorination. The concentration of DBPs increased with the UV/chlorine treatment time increasing from 2 to 15 s and then presented a decrease trend with the reaction time prolonging to 30 s. In addition, changes in natural organic matter (NOM) properties were evaluated using three-dimensional fluorescence spectra and parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) UV/chlorine treatment effectively destroyed humic-like and tyrosine-like components in waters with the maximum fluorescence intensity ( FI m a x ) reduced by 51.4% and 64.6%, respectively, compared to the raw water sample. The decrease of fluorescence of waters exhibited a positive correlation with the formation of DBP-FP in UV/chlorine treatment. Overall, DBP formation from the ammonia-polluted source water caused by UV/chlorine treatment could be managed by carefully determining chlorine doses and contact times to be used in the UV/chlorine process.
Baoqiang Hao,Yang Guo,Xueling Bai,Renyuan Zhang,Xiaoqing Li,Jing Li
The combined application of chlorination and UV irradiation has the potential to yield important benefits in water treatment. However, much of the fundamental chemistry that governs the behavior of UV/chlorine systems have not been well defined. Cyano-containing pesticides (CNPs) are widely used in agriculture and inevitably enter surface waters and other aquatic environments. In this study, twenty CNPs and their intermediates were investigated to evaluate the formation of disinfection byproducts under chlorination and UV/chlorine systems. It was found that UV/chlorine can significantly enhance the generation of cyanogen chloride (CNCl) and dichloroacetonitrile (DCAN) compared to chlorination alone. The CNCl and DCAN concentrations increased from an average of 0.13 and 0.12 μM during the chlorination alone to 0.85 and 0.41 μM, respectively, when UV 254 light was introduced. The maximum yields of CNCl and DCAN could reach 31.8 % and 7.7 %, respectively. Both the photo-induced • OH and • Cl played a key role in the generation of CNCl and DCAN. Additionally, higher yields of total CNX were observed in the UV/chlorine system in the presence of bromide. Similar results were obtained in the treatment of actual water samples, in which the concentrations of CNCl and DCAN increased by orders of magnitude under UV/chlorine treatment compared to the chlorination alone. The results showed that the cyano group of organic pollutants has a higher potential to be directly converted to toxic CNCl and DCAN under UV/chlorine treatment. The inclusion of this basic chemistry will deepen our understanding of UV/chorine water treatment technologies.