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Carbamazepine is one of the most persistent pharmaceutical compounds in wastewater effluents due to its resistance to biodegradation-based conventional treatment. Advanced oxidation can efficiently degrade carbamazepine, but the toxicity and persistence of the oxidation products may be more relevant than the parent. This study sets out to determine whether the products of advanced oxidation of carbamazepine can be biotransformed and ultimately mineralized by developing a novel methodology to assess these sequential treatment processes. The methodology traces the transformation products of the (14)C-labeled carbamazepine during UV/hydrogen peroxide advanced oxidation and subsequent biotransformation by mixed, undefined cultures using liquid scintillation counting and liquid chromatography with radioactivity, mass spectrometry, and UV detectors. The results show that the oxidation byproducts of carbamazepine containing a hydroxyl or carbonyl group can be fully mineralized by a mixed bacterial inoculum. A tertiary treatment approach that includes oxidation and biotransformation has the potential to synergistically mineralize persistent pharmaceutical compounds in wastewater treatment plant effluents. The methodology developed for this study can be applied to assess the mineralization potential of other persistent organic contaminants.

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Trace levels of antibiotics in treated wastewater effluents may present a human health risk due to the rise of antibacterial activity in the downstream environments. Advanced oxidation has a potential to become an effective treatment technology for transforming trace antibiotics in wastewater effluents, but residual or newly generated antibacterial properties of transformation products are a concern. This study demonstrates the effect of UV photolysis and UV/H2O2 advanced oxidation on transformation of 6 antibiotics, each a representative of a different structural class, in pure water and in two different effluents and reports new or confirmatory photolysis quantum yields and hydroxyl radical rate constants. The decay of the parent compound was monitored with HPLC/ITMS, and the corresponding changes in antibacterial activity were measured using bacterial inhibition assays. No antibacterially active products were observed following treatment for four of the six antibiotics (clindamycin, ciprofloxacin, penicillin-G, and trimethoprim). The remaining two antibiotics (erythromycin and doxycycline) showed some intermediates with antibacterial activity at low treatment doses. The antibacterially active products lost activity as the UV dose increased past 500 mJ/cm(2). Active products were observed only in wastewater effluents and not in pure water, suggesting that complex secondary reactions controlled by the composition of the matrix were responsible for their formation. This outcome emphasizes the importance of bench-scale experiments in realistic water matrices. Most importantly, the results indicate that photosensitized processes during high dose wastewater disinfection may be creating antibacterially active transformation products from some common antibiotics.

The concept of Electrical Energy per Order (EEO) was introduced in 2001 as a figure of merit for evaluating the energy requirements of ultraviolet-based advanced oxidation processes (UV AOPs) used for the degradation of various organic contaminants. The EEO parameter represents the energy input into the reactor that can achieve an order of magnitude decrease in the concentration of a target contaminant in a unit volume. Since the introduction of this parameter, it has become increasingly popular among UV AOP researchers and practitioners. However, the EEO is often reported without important details that affect the parameter, making its interpretation difficult. The EEO depends on a variety of factors (e.g. the concentration and identity of the target contaminant and the amount of hydrogen peroxide added). Therefore, the EEO parameter needs to be reported in the literature with several other experimental details affecting the reactor performance and in a way that proper comparisons can be made between reactors across studies or manufacturers. This paper discusses the proper application of the EEO parameter for bench-, pilot-, and full-scale studies. Sucralose (artificial sweetener, C12H19Cl3O8) is proposed as a standard substance for reactor comparison.

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Sucralose is an artificial sweetener persistently present in wastewater treatment plant effluents and aquatic environments impacted by human activity. It has a potential to accumulate in the water cycle due to its resistance to common water and wastewater treatment processes. This study examined UV/H2O2 advanced oxidation and found that hydroxyl substitution of the chlorine atoms on the sucralose molecule can form a carbohydrate consisting of fructose and sugar alcohol, very similar to environmentally benign sucrose. The second-order reaction rate constant for loss of parent molecule via reaction with hydroxyl radical was determined to be (1.56 ± 0.03)·10(9) M(-1)s(-1). The degradation pathway involves substitution of a single chlorine by a hydroxyl group, with cyclic moiety being a preferential site for initial dechlorination. Further reaction leads to full dechlorination of the molecule, presumably via hydroxyl group substitution as well. No direct photolysis by UV wavelengths above 200 nm was observed. Because of its photostability when exposed to UV wavelengths ≥200 nm, known stability with ozone, limits of quantification by mass spectrometry close to or below environmental concentrations (<5 μg/L) without preconcentration, and otherwise stable nature, sucralose can be used as an in situ hydroxyl radical probe for UV-based and ozone-based AOP processes. As a compound safe for human consumption, sucralose makes a suitable full scale hydroxyl radical probe fit even for drinking water treatment plant applications. Its main drawback as a probe is lack of UV detection and as a result a need for mass spectrometry analysis.