Disinfection of an advanced primary effluent with peracetic acid and ultraviolet combined treatment: a continuous-flow pilot plant study.

Disinfection of an advanced primary effluent using a continuous-flow combined peracetic acid/ultraviolet (PAA/UV) radiation system was evaluated. The purpose was to determine whether the maximum microbial content, established under Mexican standards for treated wastewaters meant for reuse--less than 240 most probable number fecal coliforms (FC)/100 mL--could be feasibly accomplished using either disinfectant individually, or the combined PAA/UV system. This meant achieving reduction of up to 5 logs, considering initial concentrations of 6.4 x 10(+6) to 5.8 x 10(+7) colony forming units/100 mL. During the tests performed under these experiments, total coliforms (TC) were counted because FC, at the most, will be equal to TC. Peracetic acid disinfection achieved less than 1.5 logs TC reduction when the C(t) x t product was less than 2.26 mg x minimum (min)/L; 3.8 logs for C(t) x t 4.40 mg x min/L; and 5.9 logs for C(t) x t 24.2 mg x min/L. In continuous-flow UV irradiation tests, at a low-operating flow (21 L/min; conditions which produced an average UV fluence of 13.0 mJ/cm2), the highest TC reduction was close to 2.5 logs. The only condition that produced a disinfection efficiency of approximately 5 logs, when both disinfection agents were used together, was the combined process dosing 30 mg PAA/L at a pilot plant flow of 21 L/min and contact time of 10 minutes to attain an average C(t) x t product of 24.2 mg x min/L and an average UV fluence of 13 mJ/cm2. There was no conclusive evidence of a synergistic effect when both disinfectants were employed in combination as compared to the individual effects achieved when used separately, but this does not take into account the nonlinearity (tailing-off) of the dose-response curve.

Disinfection of a wastewater flow treated by advanced primary treatment using O3, UV and O3/UV combinations.

This study was conducted to evaluate the ozone, UV and O3/UV processes for the reuse of sewage treatment plant effluent (Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana Azcapotzalco wastewater treatment plant). The ozone/UV process was compared to individual ozone and the UV processes and control parameters were total and fecal coliforms. Different ozone concentrations (6-12 mg O3/min) and different UV fluencies (6.7-20.12 mJ/cm²) were tested. It is possible to conclude than none of the processes achieved the disinfection levels required to comply with the Mexican standard NOM-003-SEMARNAT-1997. The continuous ozone process offered the lower total and fecal coliforms reductions, while UV light resulted a disinfection agent with higher germicide power than ozone. The maximum logarithmic reduction achieved due to the combined ozone/UV process was of 2.04 for fecal coliforms and of 2.17 for total coliforms. The next 8 combinations showed lower removal efficiencies, but always higher than those obtained with the single ozone or UV processes. The ozone/UV process was highly effective for the disinfection and a synergistic effect was observed.

Wastewater disinfection and organic matter removal using ferrate (VI) oxidation.

The use of iron in a +6 valence state, (Fe (VI), as FeO4(-2)) was tested as a novel alternative for wastewater disinfection and decontamination. The removal of organic matter (OM) and index microorganisms present in an effluent of a wastewater plant was determined using FeO4(-2) without any pH adjustment. It was observed that concentrations of FeO4(-2) ranging between 5 and 14 mg l(-1) inactivated up to 4-log of the index microorganisms (initial concentration c.a. 10(6) CFU/100 ml) and achieved OM removal up to almost 50%. The performance of FeO4(-2) was compared with OM oxidation and disinfection using hypochlorite. It was observed that hypochlorite was less effective in OM oxidation and coliform inactivation than ferrate. Results of this work suggest that FeO4(-2) could be an interesting oxidant able to deactivate pathogenic microorganisms in water with high OM content and readily oxidize organic matter without jeopardizing its efficiency on microorganism inactivation.

Coagulation-flocculation process applied to wastewaters generated in hydrocarbon-contaminated soil washing: Interactions among coagulant and flocculant concentrations and pH value.

Wastewater produced in the contaminated soil washing was treated by means of coagulation-flocculation (CF) process. The wastewater contained petroleum hydrocarbons, a surfactant, i.e., sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as well as salts, brownish organic matter and other constituents that were lixiviated from the soil during the washing process. The main goal of this work was to develop a process for treating the wastewaters generated when washing hydrocarbon-contaminated soils in such a way that it could be recycled to the washing process, and also be disposed at the end of the process properly. A second objective was to study the relationship among the coagulant and flocculant doses and the pH at which the CF process is developed, for systems where methylene blue active substances (MBAS) as well as oil and greases were present. The results for the selection of the right coagulant and flocculant type and dose, the optimum pH value for the CF process and the interactions among the three parameters are detailed along this work. The best coagulant and flocculant were FeCl(3) and Tecnifloc 998 at doses of 4,000 and 1 mg/L, correspondingly at pH of 5. These conditions gave color, turbidity, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and conductivity removals of 99.8, 99.6, 97.1 and 35%, respectively. It was concluded that it is feasible to treat the wastewaters generated in the contaminated soil washing process through CF process, and therefore, wastewaters could be recycled to the washing process or disposed to drainage.