Enhancing disinfection and microcontaminant removal by coupling LED driven UVC and UVA/photo-Fenton processes in continuous flow reactors.

For the first time, the sequential combination of UVC-LED (276 nm) and photo-Fenton/UVA-LED (376 nm) process has been assessed in continuous flow mode for wastewater reclamation according to the new European Regulation for reuse in agricultural irrigation (EU 2020/741). The results show that it is possible to obtain water quality class B (Escherichia coli ≤ 100 CFU/100 mL) by UVC-LED irradiation alone, operating the system with a hydraulic residence time (HRT) of 6.5 min and liquid depth of 5 cm in the case of secondary effluents with low Escherichia coli load (8.102-3.1.103 CFU/100 mL). As for high bacteria concentrations (1.2-4.2.104 CFU/100 mL), HRTs longer than 30 min are required. The bacterial load has not influenced decontamination, removing 18 ± 4 % of microcontaminants. Coupling the UVC (30-min HRT and 5.0 cm liquid depth) and the UVA/photo-Fenton (60-min and 15-cm liquid depth) systems allows 58 ± 4 % of real organic microcontaminants to be removed, in addition to achieving water quality class B.

Fe3+-NTA as iron source for solar photo-Fenton at neutral pH in raceway pond reactors.

This work presents, for the first time, a kinetic study of the solar photo-Fenton process at neutral pH mediated by the Fe3+-NTA complex (molar ratio 1: 1) applied to remove contaminants of emerging concern (CECs). To this end, wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) secondary effluents were treated in a raceway pond reactor (RPR) at pilot plant scale with 0.1 mM Fe3+-NTA and 0.88 mM H2O2 under average solar UVA irradiance of 35 W/m2. Sulfamethoxazole and imidacloprid, at 50 µg/L of initial concentration each, were selected as model CECs. Up to 40% of the sum of both model CECs was removed from simulated WWTP effluent by the Fe3+-NTA Fenton-like process, and >80% was removed by solar photo-Fenton. The effect of liquid depth in the reactor was evaluated, showing an increase of the treatment capacity from 12 mg CEC/m2·h to 18 mg CEC/m2·h when liquid depth increased from 5 to 15 cm. Afterwards, these results were validated with real WWTP effluents and compared with the results obtained with the Fe3+-EDDS complex under the same operating conditions. The same CEC removal rates were obtained with Fe3+-NTA and Fe3+-EDDS at 5 cm of liquid depth (kinetic constants of 0.110 min-1 and 0.046 min-1 for sulfamethoxazole and imidacloprid, respectively). Conversely, at 15 cm of liquid depth, the degradation rates were lower with Fe3+-NTA (kinetic constants of 0.034 min-1 for sulfamethoxazole and 0.017 min-1 for imidacloprid), whereas with Fe3+-EDDS the values were 0.076 min-1 and 0.047 min-1 for sulfamethoxazole and imidacloprid, respectively. Regarding process cost estimation, the use of NTA as iron chelate for solar photo-Fenton at neutral pH at pilot plant scale resulted very cost-effective (0.13-0.14 €/m3) in comparison with the use of EDDS (0.46-0.48 €/m3) at the two liquid depths tested.

Effect of liquid depth on microcontaminant removal by solar photo-Fenton with Fe(III):EDDS at neutral pH in high salinity wastewater.

In arid Mediterranean countries, such as Tunisia, wastewater often has high salinity, being an obstacle to the elimination of microcontaminants for the reuse of water in agriculture. In this paper, the photo-Fenton process in raceway pond reactors (RPRs) has been successfully applied to a simulated secondary effluent from a Tunisian urban wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), with high chloride load. A mixture of three contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) was used as model pollutants at 50 µg/L each (one antibiotic, sulfamethoxazole and two pesticides, pyrimicarb and imidacloprid). All the assays were conducted at neutral pH with 0.1 mM Fe(III):EDDS at 1:1 molar ratio. The effect of hydrogen peroxide initial concentration (20, 30, and 90 mg/L) on microcontaminant removal was studied. Different liquid depths (5 and 15 cm) were selected to assess the relationship between the microcontaminant removal and the volumetric rate of photon absorption (VRPA). Although the reaction rate was initially photo-limited, after a short reaction time of 15 min, the final yield (≈ 80% of CEC removal) was limited by the photo-degradation of the Fe(III):EDDS complex and excess H2O2 was found at all concentrations used. Therefore, treatment times below 15 min should be used. The treatment capacity was three times higher when the liquid depth was increased from 5 to 15 cm. For the first time, these results show that the operation of a 15 cm-deep RPR in continuous flow mode would be suitable for large-scale implementation of the solar photo-Fenton process.