A wide variety of anthropogenically contaminated wastewaters enter receiving waterbodies which are of ongoing concern globally due to their negative impacts on human and environmental health. Wastewaters may contain contaminants including dissolved and suspended solids, organic and inorganic matter, pathogens (including Escherichia coli), metals, pharmaceuticals, and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), among others. Typical anthropogenic wastewaters include municipal, industrial, and agricultural wastewaters (Moreira, Boaventura, Brillas, & Vilar, 2017; Sirés, Brillas, Oturan, Rodrigo, & Panizza, 2014; Teh, Budiman, Shak, & Wu, 2016); landfill leachates (Moreira et al. 2015; Oturan et al. 2015); and municipal stormwaters (Feng et al., 2018; Fraser et al., 2018; Harper & Herr, 1987; Mohanty et al., 2014; Taylor et al., 2015). Many technologies have been developed for treatment of these wastewaters, however, there remain challenges in increasing efficiency and cost effectiveness for treatment of these wastewaters having widely varying matrices.
Conventional wastewater treatment processes can be categorized into physical, chemical, and biological processes. Examples of physical treatment methods include bar racks/screens, sedimentation, and filtration (Clark & Pitt, 2012; Mickova, 2015). Common chemical treatment processes include coagulation/flocculation (Clark & Pitt, 2012; Harper & Herr, 1987; Sansalone & Kim, 2008; Teh et al., 2016), air stripping towers, activated carbon adsorption, and ion exchange processes (Ding et al., 2017; Ganiyu, Vieira dos Santos, Tossi de Araújo Costa, & Martínez-Huitle, 2018; Moreira, Soler, et al., 2015). In addition, chemical treatments are often used for disinfection with chlorine, ozone, and UV typically used based on their ability to economically kill a variety of pathogens (Clark & Pitt, 2012; Hussain, De las Heras, Asghar, Brown, & Roberts, 2014; Mickova, 2015). Examples of biological treatments include fixed growth, suspended solids growth, trickling filters, activated sludge, rotating biological contactor, facultative ponds, and aerated lagoons (Clark & Pitt, 2012; Fraser et al., 2018; Mickova, 2015; Mohanty et al., 2014; Moreira, Boaventura, Brillas, & Vilar, 2015). In general, these conventional processes are reasonably effective when used individually, or in treatment process trains; however, these may not be as effective in treating more complex and recalcitrant wastewater contaminants (Chauhan, Dinesh, Alawa, & Chakma, 2021). For example, biological treatment processes transform complex pollutants into some intermediates with the potential of accumulating in the environment (Bilińska, Gmurek, & Ledakowicz, 2016). There then is a need to advanced wastewater treatment processes to complete the pollutant removal processes (Ahmadi, Ramavandi, & Sahebi, 2015).
Of more recent interest are advanced wastewater treatment processes, such as electrochemical advanced oxidation process (eAOP) technologies which rely upon oxidative electrochemical species for wastewater treatment (Bergmann et al., 2014; Feng et al., 2016; Ganiyu et al., 2018; Moreira et al., 2015; Deng et al., 2019; Vidal et al., 2019; Srinivasan and Nambi, 2020). Generally, eAOPs have been used as a pre-treatment to increase efficiencies of downstream processes or as a post-treatment polishing step to meet effluent standards (Chan et al., 2012; Moreira et al., 2015; Oturan et al., 2015). Advantages of eAOPs include versatility, high efficiency, low resource consumption, and potential cost-effectiveness (Ding et al., 2017; Mickova, 2015; Radjenovic & Sedlak, 2015; Sirés et al., 2014). However, high electrode costs, low conductance of some wastewaters (e.g., stormwater) and potential for release of toxic by-products can be challenges for eAOP technologies (Bergmann et al., 2014; Mickova, 2015; Radjenovic & Sedlak, 2015) which highlight the need for further optimization of both electric supply and operational conditions to improve treatment efficiencies, reduce energy consumption, and, in turn, be more cost-effective (Seibert et al., 2020).
A potentially low cost method to increase effectiveness is the addition of salts, such as iodide and chloride, that reduce a treatment reactor’s potential and increase the oxidation process efficiency (Cañizares et al., 2006; Llanos, Cotillas, Cañizares, & Rodrigo, 2014). This is especially the case for stormwater which can have relatively low electrical conductivity (herein fluctuating between 331 – 2,080 µs/cm). Similarly, previous studies have reported that the addition of salts can lead to electrogenerated strong oxidant formation during electrochemical oxidation resulting in higher pollutant (such as organic carbons, phenolic-based compounds, and pharmaceuticals) removal rates from hospital/industrial wastewater (Fajardo et al., 2017; Lan, Coetsier, Causserand, & Serrano, 2017). Although salt addition may be beneficial for improved electrochemical treatment, it may not be sufficiently effective for all pollutants. For example, sulphate addition has been reported has limited effectiveness for the removal of salbutamol (Lan et al., 2017). Therefore, there is a need to investigate the interaction of salt and pollutants in order to determine optimal salt types and concentrations. Additionally, the reactor conditions need to be optimized for various salt concentrations and salt types to create the most effective oxidants at low voltages for cost efficiency.
Currently, our research group has been assessing a novel iodide-based eAOP known as the AOS (Advanced Oxidation System: Figure 1; BioLargo Water Inc., Canada; Moustafa et al., 2021) for the treatment of municipal and synthetic stormwaters given its exceptional performance in other water treatment applications (Moustafa et al., 2021). To our knowledge, this is the first application of iodide-based eAOP used for stormwater treatment. The determination of oxidative species created while treating real wastewaters is not realistic given their complex matrices and the short-lived nature of the created oxidative species within eAOP reactors. Thus, the first objective of the current study was to assess the AOS potential for the treatment of wastewaters through the determination of concentrations of produced oxidative iodide and chloride species within the reactor to better understand iodide-based eAOP versus a more typical chloride-based eAOP. Therefore, three concentrations (10, 25, and 50 ppm) each of potassium iodide (KI) or sodium chloride (NaCl) prepared in distilled water (DI) were added to the influent AOS water and three voltage levels (6, 12, and 24 V) were applied to the AOS. The KI has been recognised to create strong oxidative species such as iodate (IO3−) and periodate (IO4−) (Moustafa et al. 2021); while NaCl was chosen given chloride is frequently found in typical wastewaters and creates oxidative species including hypochlorite (ClO−), chlorite (ClO2−), and chlorate (ClO3−).
In addition to DI water, tap water was considered in some experiments given it contains chloride in a simpler matrix than wastewaters, thus, oxidative species formed could be readily determined. Given the short-lived nature of the oxidative species, sampling and analysis via typical instrumentation would not be feasible. Thus, a novel methodology of determination of both iodide and chloride species was used such that the species could be determined quickly via UV-vis spectrometry given its simplicity, accuracy, quick response and accessibility (Afkhami, Madrakian, & Zarei, 2001), specifically as compared to ion chromatography. The second objective was the assessment of a synthetic stormwater matrix including E. coli and a variety of other known stormwater contaminants to determine the potential for AOS to be used for treatment of real stormwaters. Results determined from the overall AOS assessment and optimization, in addition to the synthetic stormwater treatment, may be useful in informing the treatment of real stormwaters, and other wastewater matrices, using this eAOP technology.