A novel approach to healthy water Treatment: Boiling-Based UV photoelectrochemical oxidation process for the removal of disinfection by-products from drinking water

With the rapid development of modern water treatment technologies, public perception of drinking water has shifted from simply ‘having water to drink’ to ‘drinking healthy water’. Despite the ability of modern water treatment plants to remove most pollutants, the presence of excess disinfection by-products (DBPs) in tap water is a major issue. Boiling is amongst of the oldest methods for purifying drinking water, and > 90 % of Chinese households still consume boiled water. This study proposes an enhanced photoelectrochemical–thermal synchronised technology (E-UV/BO) to address the issue of excess DBPs in tap water. The study shows that boiling can effectively remove volatile DBPs, such as trihalomethanes, with removal rates reaching 60 %–80 %, but the removal of haloacetic acids and aromatic DBPs was < 10 %. In contrast, the E-UV/BO technology achieves a removal efficiency of > 70 % for all DBPs, even with complete elimination. This enhancement in the removal efficiency can be attributed to the improved catalyst performance, reduced solution resistance, accelerated molecular motion and decreased intermolecular forces. FT-ICR MS confirmed that the E-UV/BO significantly simplified the molecular composition of dissolved organic matter and effectively removed halogenated and aromatic DBP precursors. For a family of four consuming 10 L of water per day, the daily power consumption of this small-scale device based on E-UV/BO is only 0.5–0.8 kWh. This technology not only offers a new approach to improving the quality of drinking water but also reduces the treatment burden on upstream water treatment plants, contributing to global efforts to ensure drinking water safety.