Electrochemical disinfection using the gas diffusion electrode system

A study on the electrochemical disinfection with H202 generated at the gas diffusion electrode （GDE） from active carbon/poly- tetrafluoroethylene was performed in a non-membrane cell. The effects of Pt load and the pore-forming agent content in GDE, and operating conditions were investigated. The experimental results showed that nearly all bacterial cultures inoculated in the secondary effluent from wastewater treatment plant could be inactivated within 30 min at a current density of 10 mA/cm^2. The disinfection improved with increasing Pt load. Addition of the pore-forming agent NH4HCO3 improved the disinfection, while a drop in the pH value resulted in a rapid rise of germicidal efficacy and the disinfection time was shortened with increasing oxygen flow rate. Adsorption was proved to be ineffective in destroying bacteria, while germicidal efficacy increased with current density. The acceleration rate was different, it initially increased with current density. Then decreased, and finally reached a maximum at a current density of 6.7 mA/cm^2. The disinfection also improved with decreasing total bacterial count. The germicidal efficacy in the cathode compartment was approximately the same as in the anode compartment, indicating that the contribution of direct oxidation and the indirect treatment of bacterial cultures by hydroxyl radical was similar to the oxidative indirect effect of the generated H2O2.

Impacts of electrochemical disinfection on the viability and structure of the microbiome in secondary effluent water

Electrochemical disinfection(ECD)is a promising disinfection technique for wastewater reclamation;however,the impacts of ECD on the microbiome in secondary effluent wastewater remain unknown.In this study,Propidium monoazide-qPCR(PMA-qPCR)and the plate count method were used to evaluate the inactivation performance,and the PMA-16S rRNA gene sequences of living cells were targeted to study the microbiome.A discrepancy was found between PMA-qPCR and the plate count method in the evaluation of cell count,with increases of 1.5 to 2.2 orders of magnitude in the disinfection rate after 150 s of disinfection.However,the cell count recovered and occasionally exceeded original levels within 3 d after disinfection.Biodiversity was suppressed after ECD,but the microbiome after 150 s disinfection retained a higher level of evenness and stability in the community with a median Shannon index(>3.7).Pathogenic bacteria remained high in relative abundance even after 150 s of 25 V disinfection,but the biofilm-forming population was effectively suppressed by ECD.The co-occurrence network revealed a centralized and fragile network as disinfection persisted,demonstrating the destabilizing effects of ECD on the microbiome.Functional pathways for cell membrane synthesis and organic compound degradation were enriched after ECD.The reaction of the microbiome after ECD was similar to other disinfection techniques in terms of community structure.