Enhanced formation of trihalomethane disinfection byproducts from halobenzoquinones under combined UV/chlorine conditions

Halobenzoquinones(HBQs)are highly toxic disinfection byproducts(DBPs)and are also precursors of other DBPs such as trihalomethanes(THMs).The formation of THMs from HBQs during chlorine-only and UV/chlorine processes with or without bromide was investigated experimentally.Density functional theory(DFT)reactivity descriptors were also applied to predict the nucleophilic/electrophilic reactive sites on HBQs and intermediates.The results were combined to explain the different behaviors of 2,6-dichloro-1,4-benzoquinone(2,6-DCBQ)and tetrachloro-1,4-benzoquinone(TCBQ)and to propose mechanism for the promoting roles of UV and hydroxylation of HBQs in THMs formation.Under UV/chlorine,UV significantly enhanced THMs formation from 2,6-DCBQ compared to chlorine-only,mainly due to the production of OH-DCBQ^(*).Excited 2,6-DCBQ^(*)by UV benefited nucleophilic hydrolysis to produce OH-DCBQ^(*),which favored electrophilic attack by chlorine,thereby inducing more THMs formation.UV/chlorine modestly promoted THMs formation from TCBQ compared to chlorine-only.Hydroxylation of TCBQ and UV irradiation were both important in promoting THMs formation due to the high electrophilic property of OH-TCBQ and TCBQ^(*).Meanwhile,hydroxylation of HBQs and CHCl3 formation were enhanced at higher pH.This work suggested that enhanced formation of THMs from HBQs should be considered in the application of combined UV and chlorine processes.

Impact of Suspended Particles and Enhancement Techniques on Ultraviolet Disinfection of a Secondary Effluent

The concentration of suspended solids in the secondary effluent often varies widely, leading to frequent adjustment of the UV dosage to meet the disinfection criterion. In addition, a desired disinfection rate is difficult to achieve sometimes. The authors studied the particle size distribution, contribution of particle-associated Fecal Coliform (F.C.), and their influences on UV disinfection. A combined disinfection process (chlorination with a subsequent UV disinfection) was tested to improve the disinfection effect. The results indicated that the content of suspended solids, especially that of large particles, has a strong impact on UV disinfection efficiency; D>10 μm particles associated F.C. are difficult to be disinfected and are the main part of the tailings of F.C. inactivation curves. Pre-chlorination could decrease the number of particles in the secondary effluent and transform the large particles into small ones, reducing the influence of particles on UV disinfection and enhancing the resistance ability of the combined process to particle loading.

Chlorination pattern effect on thermodynamic parameters and environmental degradability for C_(10)-SCCPs: Quantum chemical calculation based on virtual combinational library

Short-chain chlorinated paraffins（SCCPs） are still controversial candidates for inclusion in the Stockholm Convention.The inherent mixture nature of SCCPs makes it rather difficult to explore their environmental behaviors.A virtual molecule library of 42,720 C10-SCCP congeners covering the full structure spectrum was constructed.We explored the structural effects on the thermodynamic parameters and environmental degradability of C10-SCCPs through semi-empirical quantum chemical calculations.The thermodynamic properties were acquired using the AM1 method,and frontier molecular orbital analysis was carried out to obtain the EHOMO,ELUMO and ELUMO-EHOMO for degradability exploration at the same level.The influence of the chlorination degree（NCl on the relative stability and environmental degradation was elucidated.A novel structural descriptor,μ,was proposed to measure the dispersion of the chlorine atoms within a molecule.There were significant correlations between thermodynamic values and NCl,while the reported NCl-dependent pollution profile of C10-SCCPs in environmental samples was basically consistent with the predicted order of formation stability of C10-SCCP congeners.In addition,isomers with largeμ showed higher relative stability than those with small μ.This could be further verified by the relationship between μ and the reactivity of nucleophilic substitution and · OH attack respectively.The C10-SCCP congeners with less Cl substitution and lower dispersion degree are susceptible to environmental degradation via nucleophilic substitution and hydroxyl radical attack,while direct photolysis of C10-SCCP congeners cannot readily occur due to the large ELUMO-EHOMO values.The chlorination effect and the conclusions were further checked with appropriate density functional theory（DFT） calculations.