The project DemOAC (demonstration of large-scale wastewater ozonation at the Aachen-Soers wastewater treatment plant, Germany) of the Eifel-Rur Waterboard contains the construction of a large-scale ozonation plant for advanced treatment of the entire 25 million m³/yr of wastewater passing through its largest wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). In dry periods, up to 70% of the receiving water consists of treated wastewater. Thus, it is expected that effects of ozonation on downstream water biocoenosis will become observable. Extensive monitoring of receiving water and the WWTP shows a severe pollution with micropollutants (already prior to WWTP inlet). (Eco-)Toxicological investigations showed increased toxicity at the inlet of the WWTP for all assays. However, endocrine-disrupting potential was also present at other sampling points at the WWTP and in the river and could not be eliminated sufficiently by the WWTP. Total cell counts at the WWTP are slightly below average. Investigations of antibiotic resistances show no increase after the WWTP outlet in the river. However, cells carrying antibiotic-resistant genes seem to be more stress resistant in general. Comparing investigations after implementation of ozonation should lead to an approximation of the correlation between micropollutants and water quality/biocoenosis and the effects that ozonation has on this matter.
A novel catalyst was used for lab scale photocatalytic experiments. It was a carbon doped titanium dioxide which was designed to create an energy efficient photocatalytic process. The titanium dioxide is able to absorb UV‐A radiation and parts of the visible light spectrum. The catalyst was immobilized to a glass sheet. UV‐A radiation was used for the degradation of the pharmaceutical diclofenac in water to investigate the applicability of the catalyst to degrade organic micropollutants. With the given experimental setup hydroxyl radicals were generated and diclofenac was degraded below the limit of quantification. However, reaction rates are rather slow and the material properties of the catalyst showed the need of improvement. This is because the properties of the coating were influenced by the release of inorganic binder. Therefore, the coating and possibly the titanium dioxide were washed off and the reaction rates decreased drastically after 80 hours of use.
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