Impact of changes in biofilm composition response following chlorine and chloramine disinfection on nitrogenous disinfection byproduct formation and toxicity risk in drinking water distribution systems.

In practical drinking water treatment, chlorine and chloramine disinfection exhibit different mechanisms that affect biofilm growth. This study focused on the influence of biofilm composition changes, especially extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) fractions, on the potential formation and toxicity of nitrogenous disinfection by-products (N-DBP). Significant differences in microbial diversity and community structure were observed between the chlorine and chloramine treatments. Notably, the biofilms from the chloramine-treated group had higher microbial dominance and greater accumulation of organic precursors, as evidenced by the semi-quantitative confocal laser-scanning microscopy assay of more concentrated microbial aggregates and polysaccharide proteins in the samples. Additionally, the chloramine-treated group compared with chlorine had a higher EPS matrix content, with a 13.5 % increase in protein. Furthermore, the protein distribution within the biofilm differed; in the chlorine group, proteins were concentrated in the central region, whereas in the chloramine group, proteins were primarily located at the water-biofilm interface. Notably, functional prediction analyses of protein fractions in biofilms revealed specific functional regulation patterns and increased metabolism-related abundance of proteins in the chlorine-treated group. This increase was particularly pronounced for proteins such as dehydrogenases, reductases, transcription factors, and acyl-CoA dehydrogenases. By combining the Fukui function and density functional calculations to further analyse the effect of biofilm component changes on N-DBP production under chlorine/chloramine and by assessing the toxicity risk potential of N-DBP, it was determined that chloramine disinfection is detrimental to biofilm control and the accumulation of protein precursors has a higher formation potential of N-DBPs and toxicity risk, increasing the health risk of drinking water.

Divergent Fate and Roles of Dissolved Organic Matter from Spatially Varied Grassland Soils in China During Long-Term Biogeochemical Processes.

Terrestrial dissolved organic matter (DOM) is critical to global carbon and nutrient cycling, climate change, and human health. However, how the spatial and compositional differences of soil DOM affect its dynamics and fate in water during the carbon cycle is largely unclear. Herein, the biodegradation of DOM from 14 spatially distributed grassland soils in China with diverse organic composition was investigated by 165 days of incubation experiments. The results showed that although the high humified fraction (high-HS) regions were featured by high humic-like fractions of 4-25 kDa molecular weight, especially the abundant condensed aromatics and tannins, they unexpectedly displayed greater DOM degradation during 45-165 days. In contrast, the unique proteinaceous and 25-100 kDa fractions enriched in the low humified fraction (low-HS) regions were drastically depleted and improved the decay of bulk DOM but only during 0-45 days. Together, DOM from the high-HS regions would cause lower CO2 outgassing to the atmosphere but higher organic loads for drinking water production in the short term than that from the low-HS regions. However, this would be reversed for the two regions during the long-term transformation processes. These findings highlight the importance of spatial and temporal variability of DOM biogeochemistry to mitigate the negative impacts of grassland soil DOM on climate, waters, and humans.

Characterization of young biofilm morphology, disinfection byproduct formation potential and toxicity of renewed water supply pipelines by phosphorus release from corroded pipes.

The deterioration of drinking water quality due to corrosion of the water supply network has become inevitable and regular renewal of pipes has become a common means of doing so. Severely corroded pipes release certain nutrients (e.g., elemental phosphorus), however, little has been reported on the effect of old pipes on the young biofilm of new pipe sections and on ensuring water safety in the early stages of the water supply. The aim of our study was to model the effect of key phosphorus nutrients released from corroded old pipes on the morphological characteristics of young biofilms in new pipe sections, mediated disinfection byproducts (DBPs) production and their combined toxicity. Based on the experimental results, phosphorus showed significant differences in the morphological characteristics, spatial structure of extracellular polymers (EPS), functional abundance, disinfection byproduct formation potential (DBPsFP) and toxicity of young biofilms. Under residual chlorine (1.0 ± 0.2 mg/L) incubation, the functional abundance of young biofilm metabolism was dominant, particularly amino acid metabolism and carbohydrate metabolism. There is a dynamic balance between the trophic and shedding effects of phosphorus, where concentration changes affect young biofilm morphology and DBPFP. Relatively moderate phosphorus concentrations resulted in the highest density of PN/PS organic precursors in EPS and a clear advantage of DBPFP; relatively high phosphorus conditions had limited promotion of young biofilm, while membrane structure shedding was more pronounced, increasing young biofilm-mediated DBPs production. Nitrogen-containing disinfection byproducts (N-DBPs) in young biofilms had a clear toxicity advantage, with HANs and HNMs being key to controlling cytotoxicity and genotoxicity, respectively.

Energy-efficient removal of trace antibiotics from low-conductivity water using a Ti4O7 reactive electrochemical ceramic membrane: Matrix effects and implications for byproduct formation.

The inevitably high energy consumption of traditional electrochemical processes to treat low-conductivity water has limited their wider application. Herein, we present an energy-efficient alternative, i.e., a Ti4O7 reactive electrochemical ceramic membrane (Ti4O7-REM) system with a superior mass transfer ability. For the removal of 10-200 µM norfloxacin (NOR) from low-conductivity (178-832 µS cm-1) water, the Ti4O7-REM system increased the kinetics rate constant by 4.3-34.0 times, thus decreasing the energy cost by 80.5-97.3% compared with a flow-by system. The rapid NOR removal was related to the enhanced direct electron transfer process in the Ti4O7-REM system, which allowed for higher resistance to HCO3- scavenging and a favorable reaction between NOR and the active sites. Meanwhile, this mechanism likely contributed to the less formation of inorganic chlorinated product, ClO3-, in the presence of Cl-. Although organic chlorinated byproducts were not detected during NOR degradation in the Ti4O7-REM system, Cl- influenced the speciation of the intermediates. A single-pass Ti4O7-REM system demonstrated 94-97% removal of trace antibiotics from real water samples in 30 s. The additional energy consumption (<0.02 kWh m-3) using a Ti4O7-REM system only contributed to 5.0-6.4% of the total in a typical tertiary wastewater treatment plant. Based on the above results, we can conclude that the convection-enhanced REM technique is viable for the purification of low-conductivity natural waters.

Effects of pipe materials on the characteristic recognition, disinfection byproduct formation, and toxicity risk of pipe wall biofilms during chlorination in water supply pipelines.

There are growing concerns over the contributions of biofilms to disinfection byproduct (DBP) formation in engineered water systems (EWSs). Three kinds of water supply pipes, ductile iron (DI), cement-lined stainless steel (SS) and polyethylene (PE) pipes, were selected for the experiment conducted in this study. Based on test results, the three pipe biofilms showed relatively obvious differences in growth, morphological characteristics, organic components and bacterial diversity. Secreted extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) accounted for more than 90% of the biofilm and had greater disinfection byproduct formation potential (DBPFP) than the cell phases. DI pipe wall biofilms had the highest DBPFP, which to a certain extent means that denser and richer organic matter can be produced as the precursor of different types of DBPs. UHPLC-Q Exactive was used to identify the types of DBPs generated from the chlorination of histidine (His), alanine (Ala) and tryptophan (Trp) shared by the three pipe materials and their formation pathways. Compared to carbonaceous disinfection by-products (C-DBPs), nitrogenous disinfection by-products (N-DBPs) had a significant advantage in toxicity generation potentials in the biofilms, especially dichloroacetonitrile (DCAN) and trichloronitromethane (TCNM). DCAN and haloacetic acids (HAAs) were the key to cytotoxicity in biofilms, while TCNM was dominant in biofilm genotoxicity.

Characterization of organic precursors in DBP formation and AOC in urban surface water and their fate during managed aquifer recharge.

In this study, the organic components were identified that are mainly responsible for the formation of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) and for the biostability of urban surface water. The compositional distribution of dissolved organic matter (DOM) was strongly associated with the potential for both DBP formation and bacterial growth. Further evaluation was carried out (1) to compare the potential for DBP formation upon chlorination of treated water, (2) to determine the biostability that might result from minimizing assimilable organic carbon (AOC), and (3) to use laboratory-scale soil-column experiments to compare the effects of removal of trace organic chemicals (TOrCs) between managed aquifer recharge (MAR) hybrid systems (such as bank filtration followed by artificial recharge and recovery: ARR), and ozonation followed by ARR. Our fractionation and removal methods provided useful insights into the removal of problematic organic components using MAR hybrid systems. Pretreatment with a small amount of ozone (∼0.7 mg-O3 mg-C-1) resulted in improved ARR performance, especially from removing organic acids from DOM, which substantially decreased the potential for DBP formation, while the robust removal of AOC was attributed to a significant decrease in non-acidic and more hydrophilic fractions during soil passage. Both pretreatments used in this study were effective in the removal of selected TOrCs, but carbamazepine was persistent during soil passage. The pretreatment, which used ozonation before ARR, significantly enhanced the removal of carbamazepine; therefore, ozonation followed by ARR is considered an effective way to enhance removal of persistent compounds.

Biorefinery of microalgae - opportunities and constraints for different production scenarios.

In order to design economically feasible production processes it is necessary, as part of the biorefinery concept, to valorize all constituents of the microalgal biomass. Such an approach requires appropriate biorefinery side-process strategies to be adapted to production of the primary product. These strategies are particularly valid for microalgae, since the composition and amount of residual biomass can vary significantly depending on cell stoichiometry and cultivation techniques. This review investigates opportunities and constraints for biorefinery concepts in production scenarios for four different products from microalgae with different market volumes, including high- and medium-value products, whole cells and biodiesel. Approaches to close material and energy balances, as well as to adapt the biorefinery according to biological potential, process routes, and market needs are presented, which will further contribute to making the biorefinery concept a success.

Formação de subprodutos orgânicos halogenados nas operações de pré-oxidação com cloro, ozônio e peroxônio e pós-cloração em água conténdo subtância húmica / Formation of halogenated organic byproducts using preoxidation with chlorine, ozone and peroxone and post-chlorination of water containing humic substances

Dentre os compostos orgânicos halogenados que podem ser encontrados na água distribuída à população, destacam-se: trialometanos, ácidos haloacéticos, haloaldeídos, halocetonas, halofenóis e halopicrinas. O presente trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar o efeito da formação de 22 subprodutos com a utilização dos pré-oxidantes: cloro, ozônio e peroxônio. A formação de subprodutos foi observada em água preparada com adição de substâncias húmicas extraídas de solo turfoso, por meio do uso da pré-oxidação, presença e ausência de coagulação, filtração e pós-cloração. Os subprodutos foram quantificados por cromatografia gasosa com detetor de captura de elétrons. Os resultados obtidos mostraram que o uso de pré-oxidantes alternativos, ozônio e peroxônio, associados à coagulação, filtração e pós-cloração, formam quantidades pequenas de subprodutos.

When chlorine is used as preoxidant, the formation of halogenated organic byproducts found in water treated and distriduted to the population, are: trihalometane, haloacetic acids, haloaldehyde, haloketone, halophenol and halopicrin. This research was performed to evaluate the formation potential of 22 byproducts using the following preoxidants: chlorine, ozone and peroxone. The formation of byproducts was simulated in water prepared with the addition of humic substances extracted from peat soil by the use of preoxidants, coagulation, filtration, and post-chlorination. Byproducts have quantified by gas chromatography with electron capture detector. The results obtained showed that the use of alternative preoxidants, such as ozone and peroxone, associated with coagulation, filtration, and post-chlorination form a low concentration of byproducts.