Inactivation of simulated aquaculture stream bacteria at low temperature using advanced UVA- and solar-based oxidation methods

In this work the effect of water temperature (6 +/- 1 degrees C and 22 +/- 1 degrees C) on inactivation of bacteria (104 -106 CFU mL-1; Pseudomonas spp., Aeromonas spp. and Enterobacter spp.) in simulated aquaculture streams (SAS) using UVA based advanced oxidation processes (AOP) (H2O2-assisted UVA; photocatalysis; H2O2-assisted photocatalysis) and solar driven AOPs (H2O2-assisted solar disinfection, SODIS) was studied. Efficiency at 22 degrees C in terms of inactivation rate was higher using H2O2-assisted photocatalysis (H2O2/UVA-TiO2/polysiloxane) > H2O2-assisted UVA disinfection (UVA/H2O2 - 10 mg L-1) > photocatalysis (UVA-TiO2/polysiloxane) > UVA disinfection. At low temperature (6 degrees C) the inactivation rate increased with SODIS/H2O2 > SODIS > H2O2assisted UVA disinfection (UVA/H2O2 - 10 mg L-1) > H2O2-assisted photocatalysis (H2O2/UVA-TiO2/polysiloxane) > photocatalysis (UVA-TiO2/polysiloxane). The main results indicate that the inactivation rates increased when hydrogen peroxide (10 mg L-1) was used during H2O2-assisted UVA disinfection and photocatalysis. In addition, exposure of SAS to hydrogen peroxide for 24 h (in absence of light) at room temperature decreased the subsequent exposure UVA irradiation dose by almost four times. Drastic increase of inactivation rate was observed at low water temperature (6 +/- 1 degrees C) when UVA- and solarbased AOPs were employed compared to 22 +/- 1 degrees C. The treatment with SODIS proved to be more effective in Finland than in Spain. The effect of the low temperature (6 +/- 1 degrees C) was proposed as a critical factor during UVA disinfection (UVA/H2O2 and photocatalysis) that can increase the disinfection rate constant (kmax) by 1.3-5.2 times, leading to a reduction of the treatment costs ( euro m-3) by 1.3-3.3 times. The mechanism of observed enhanced disinfection at low water temperature (6 +/- 1 degrees C) when natural solar light and UVA are employed as irradiation sources for UVA/H2O2 and photocatalytic bacteria inactivation was proposed. No regrowth was observed in case of H2O2-assisted AOPs.This work was supported by a national research project (SUNRAS PROJECT, Project AGL2016-80507-R) funded by Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (Plan Nacional de I + D + i (2013-2016). The research was also supported by a PIF contract (UCA/REC01VI/2017) funded by Vicerrectorado de Investigacion of Universidad de Cadiz. D. Sc. Juan Jose Rueda-Marquez is grateful for financial support from Academy of Finland within the project '' Combination of Advanced Oxidation Processes and Photobiotreatment for Sustainable Resource Recovery and Wastewater Reuse'' (application number 322339). T. Homola acknowledges financial support by Czech Science Foundation project 19-14770Y and project LM2018097 funded by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic. Documen

Non-Hydrolytic Sol-Gel Route to a Family of Hybrid Mesoporous Aluminosilicate Ethanol Dehydration Catalysts

Organic-inorganic hybrid materials are nowadays intensely studied for potential applications in heterogeneous catalysis because their properties and catalytic behavior differ from pristine inorganic counterparts. The organic groups at the catalyst surface can modify not only its hydrophilicity, but also acidity, hydrothermal stability, porosity, etc. In some cases, such properties alteration leads to improved catalytic performance in terms of activity, selectivity, or stability. However, the choice of organic groups stays relatively narrow, as most reports focus on pendant methyl groups. Here, a series of mesoporous hybrid aluminosilicate materials containing various organic groups was prepared in one pot by non-hydrolytic sol-gel (NHSG). Both aromatic and aliphatic, pendant and bridging organic groups were incorporated. The presence of the organic groups in the bulk and at the outermost surface of the materials was verified by solid-state NMR and ToF-SIMS, respectively. Aluminum is mostly incorporated in tetrahedral coordination in the hybrid silica matrix. The organically modified mesoporous aluminosilicate samples were tested as catalysts in the gas phase ethanol dehydration (which relies on solid acids) and most of them outperformed the purely inorganic catalyst benchmark. While a direct influence of surface hydrophilicity or hydrophobicity (as probed by water sorption and water contact angle measurements) appeared unlikely, characterization of acidity (IR-pyridine) revealed that the improved performance for hybrid catalysts can be correlated with a modification of the acidic properties. In turn, acidity is determined by the quality of the dispersion of Al centers in the form of isolated sites in the hybrid silica matrix. All in all, this study establishes a "ranking" for a variety of organic groups in terms of their effect on gas-phase ethanol dehydration to ethylene; ethylene yield decreases in this order: bridging xylylene ≈ pendant methyl > pendant benzyl > bridging methylene ≈ inorganic benchmark (no organic groups) > bridging ethylene.<br /