Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology最新文献

{"title":"DOM removal from Lake Kinneret by adsorption columns and biodegradation: a pilot study and modeling†","authors":"Mario L. Kummel, Ofri B. Zusman, Shlomo Nir and Yael G. Mishael","doi":"10.1039/D4EW00407H","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4EW00407H","url":null,"abstract":"<p >A year-long removal of dissolved organic matter (DOM) from Lake Kinneret water, the main reservoir of surface drinking water in Israel, was studied by adsorption pilot plant columns with media which included new (virgin) granular activated carbon (GAC), regenerated GAC (rGAC), a clay–polymer nanocomposite (PD–MMT), and a combined media (COMB) of PD–MMT composite followed by rGAC at the same volumes. Lake Kinneret water is characterized by low specific absorption of UV at 254 nm (SUVA<small>₂₅₄</small>), high ionic strength and high bromide content. We studied DOM removal mechanisms by each adsorbent and their combination, <em>via</em> monitoring their emerging concentrations through the columns. The effect of DOM removal on trihalomethanes formation (THMF) was also elucidated. Simulated and predicted DOM adsorption in GAC columns by developing an extended model including adsorption and biodegradation is presented. The best yield of DOM removal results (expressed as UV<small>₂₅₄</small> and DOC) was by the COMB and GAC columns. The COMB presents a synergistic result by the combination of two removal mechanisms, electrostatic by PD–MMT and hydrophobic by rGAC. The analysis along the columns shows that whereas the removal by GAC and rGAC was carried out through all layers, the removal by PD–MMT was preferentially by the upper and middle layers. Emerging SUVA<small>₂₅₄</small> values decreased for all media throughout the pilot run. The humic matter (HM) compounds comprising hydrophobic characteristics were more efficiently removed than the non-absorbing fractions at 254 nm (NABS<small>₂₅₄</small>) with more hydrophilic characteristics. THM precursors' removal by COMB as well as GAC satisfied the THM regulations. The removal of hydrophilic matter in the presence of bromide should improve the reduction of THM formation in treated water. Modeling of DOM removal at the laboratory and pilot plant, which focused on removal by GAC column, could fit the data only by considering DOM biodegradation. When a steady state during pilot operation was reached, biodegradation yields, the main contribution to DOM removal, improved the overall capacity of GAC removal beyond the adsorption process.</p>","PeriodicalId":75,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology","volume":" 11","pages":" 2736-2751"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142176498","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Membrane technology for water reuse in decentralised non-sewered sanitation systems: comparison of pressure driven (reverse osmosis) and thermally driven processes (membrane distillation and pervaporation)†","authors":"E. Mercer, C. Davey, Y. Bajón Fernández, S. Septien, S. Tyrrel, E. Cartmell, M. Pidou and E. J. McAdam","doi":"10.1039/D4EW00200H","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4EW00200H","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Membrane processes are an established barrier technology for water reclamation from wastewater. Applied at a household scale to improve sanitation practice, membrane technology can disrupt the source–receptor pathway, alleviate water scarcity through eliminating flush water and recover clean water for reuse. However, blackwater comprises a distinct composition compared to municipal wastewater, and there is only limited understanding on whether membrane selectivity is sufficient to produce water of sufficient quality for reuse. In this study, pressure driven and thermally driven membranes are evaluated for their potential to treat blackwater, by relating selectivity to relevant water quality standards (ISO 30500) and the transmission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are primarily associated with faecal odour, and thus constitute a critical challenge to water reuse. Both pressure driven (reverse osmosis) and thermally driven (membrane distillation and pervaporation) membranes were able to produce water that conformed to category B of the ISO 30500 standard for the majority of determinants. A critical limiting factor was in the selectivity for ammonia and odorous VOCs which were generally poorly removed by reverse osmosis and membrane distillation. The high ammonia transmission was accounted for by the elevated pH of blackwater which shifted the ammonium equilibria toward volatile ammonia which is poorly separated by RO polymers, and is free to diffuse through the gas-filled micropores of the membrane distillation membrane. In contrast, greater ammonia and VOC separation was evidenced for the pervaporation membrane due to advanced polymer–solute interactions. In a preliminary assessment, the hydrophilicity exhibited by the membrane was also advantageous to withstanding fouling. If complemented with a polishing step to target the residual COD and VOCs (that may be of similar origin), pervaporation could deliver to category A standard for non-potable reuse. This is particularly advantageous for water scarce regions where solar or liquified fuels may be applied in favour of electricity for off-grid sanitation.</p>","PeriodicalId":75,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology","volume":" 11","pages":" 2831-2843"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2024/ew/d4ew00200h?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142176500","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Comparative analysis of culture- and ddPCR-based wastewater surveillance for carbapenem-resistant bacteria†","authors":"Siyi Zhou, Esther G. Lou, Julia Schedler, Katherine B. Ensor, Loren Hopkins and Lauren B. Stadler","doi":"10.1039/D4EW00525B","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4EW00525B","url":null,"abstract":"<p >With the widespread use of last-resort antibiotics, carbapenems, clinical reports of infections associated with carbapenem-resistant <em>Enterobacterales</em> (CRE) have increased. Clinical surveillance for CRE involves susceptibility testing and/or whole genome sequencing of resistant isolates, which is laborious, resource intensive, and requires expertise. Wastewater surveillance can potentially complement clinical surveillance of CRE, and population-level antibiotic resistance (AR) surveillance more broadly. In this study, we quantitatively and qualitatively compared two widely used methods for AR wastewater surveillance: (1) a culture-based approach for quantifying carbapenem-resistant bacteria and (2) a digital droplet PCR (ddPCR) assay targeting five major carbapenemase-encoding genes. We developed a new multiplexed ddPCR assay to detect five carbapenemase-encoding genes and applied it to wastewater samples from three sites over 12 weeks. In parallel, we quantified carbapenem resistant bacteria and carbapenemase-producing bacteria using culture-based methods. We assessed associations between the concentrations of carbapenemase-encoding genes and resistant bacteria. Although both approaches showed similar trends in the overall abundance of dominant carbapenem-resistant bacteria and genes, there were weak correlations between the quantitative levels of resistance. Nanopore sequencing of the resistome of the carbapenem-resistant bacteria revealed that discrepancies arose from differences in the sensitivity and specificity of the methods. This study highlights tradeoffs between methods: culture-based methods offer detailed phenotypic data on carbapenem-resistant bacteria but have longer turnaround times and lower throughput, whereas ddPCR offers rapid, sensitive detection but may miss some resistance mechanisms. Integrating these methods with sequencing provides sensitive, quantitative AR information and their clinical relevance.</p>","PeriodicalId":75,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology","volume":" 1","pages":" 51-63"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142176501","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Predictive modeling of BOD throughout wastewater treatment: a generalizable machine learning approach for improved effluent quality","authors":"Offir Inbar, Moni Shahar and Dror Avisar","doi":"10.1039/D4EW00111G","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4EW00111G","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) is one of the most sensitive and essential indicators of wastewater quality. However, today, BOD detection methods require considerable effort and time, resulting in management and operational errors during the wastewater-treatment process which leads to the production of poor-quality effluent that poses a threat to public health and safety. Using advanced machine learning (ML) methods, we developed generalizable BOD prediction model based on a unique, centrally integrated database from 30 wastewater-treatment plants (WWTP) across Israel. The model is based on easily retrieved water parameters measured by on-site sensors or conventional analytical devices. In this work, three different ML algorithms were examined and compared, random forest (RF), support vector machine, and gradient tree boosting. The optimized RF model reached the best results, <em>R</em><small>²</small> of 0.91 and RMSE of 8.58 in predicting the total BOD at different stages of the treatment process. The three key features for modeling were chemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids, and total Kjeldahl nitrogen. We then present an approach to predict BOD in effluent, focusing on binary classification predictions for regulatory compliance. For a prediction threshold of BOD &gt; 9 mg L<small>⁻¹</small>, a recall of 0.89 was achieved. These results demonstrate the potential of the model to be a generalized solution for BOD predictions in WWTP across Israel, and possibly worldwide. This method can be used as a part of a sensor for BOD monitoring and management in wastewater, effectively minimizing the time gaps between routine lab testing. The fundamental challenge addressed herein has important global relevance, especially in an era in which the demand for high-quality wastewater reuse is expected to increase dramatically.</p>","PeriodicalId":75,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology","volume":" 10","pages":" 2577-2588"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142176502","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Pyrolysis of municipal sewage sludge: challenges, opportunities and new valorization routes for biochar, bio-oil, and pyrolysis gas†","authors":"Vincenzo Pelagalli, Michela Langone, Silvio Matassa, Marco Race, Riccardo Tuffi, Stefano Papirio, Piet N. L. Lens, Marco Lazzazzara, Alessandro Frugis, Luigi Petta and Giovanni Esposito","doi":"10.1039/D4EW00278D","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4EW00278D","url":null,"abstract":"<p >The efficient management of municipal sewage sludge (MSS) daily produced worldwide by biological wastewater treatment processes is nowadays of utmost importance. Classic treatment/disposal methods are affected by efficiency and/or safety issues. Innovative thermochemical treatments are gaining momentum as promising alternatives. Pyrolysis of MSS can result in the recovery of precious resources, such as nutrients and organic matter, and their conversion into three valuable fractions, <em>i.e.</em> biochar, bio-oil, and pyrolysis gas. These products are employable in innovative biorefinery pathways towards a wide range of value-added materials. In this review, an integrated biorefinery platform for MSS valorization is presented. After a brief introduction on MSS properties and issues related to its management, a deep focus on the influence that the feedstock and pyrolysis conditions have on the product yields and composition was conducted. Innovative valorization routes for biochar, bio-oil and pyrolysis gas were extensively discussed by highlighting challenges, opportunities, advantages and drawbacks. The characteristics required by these products to be efficiently valorized, as well as the main solution for their enhancement, were described. Additionally, economic considerations on MSS pyrolysis derived from full-scale applications conducted at the European and global level were elaborated. Finally, future perspectives about biochar, bio-oil and pyrolysis gas employment in cutting-edge upcycling routes have been reported.</p>","PeriodicalId":75,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology","volume":" 10","pages":" 2282-2312"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142176519","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Design of 2D/2D ZnIn2S4/MgAl-LDH core–shell nanostructures toward enhanced photodegradation of organic dyes†","authors":"Qiang Gao, Lingchun Ye, Wei Liu, Junxi Li, Yuchen Cui, Naicai Xu and Mingjin Zhang","doi":"10.1039/D4EW00340C","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4EW00340C","url":null,"abstract":"<p >The rational design of semiconductor photocatalysts with multi-dimensional nanostructures is an effective way to solve the problem of water environmental pollution. Herein, a series of ZnIn<small>₂</small>S<small>₄</small>/MgAl-LDH (ZIS/LDH) composites with core–shell nanostructures were synthesized by <em>in situ</em> growth of 2D ZnIn<small>₂</small>S<small>₄</small> nanosheets on hexagonal LDH sheets. The obtained ZIS/LDH composite exhibited enhanced photocatalytic performance with 100% degradation efficiency for methyl orange (MO) within 20 min illumination, which was mainly attributed to the heterostructure formed by the excellent interface contact of the nanostructures, thereby inhibiting the recombination of photogenerated charges. Additionally, the as-synthesized photocatalyst shows satisfactory photocatalytic activity in stability tests and removal experiments for various dye pollutants. The present work provides novel insight into the design of heterojunction photocatalysts with multidimensional nanostructures and environmentally friendly applications.</p>","PeriodicalId":75,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology","volume":" 10","pages":" 2589-2596"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142176503","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sustainable treatment for low ammonia nitrogen sewage wastewater in cold climates: natural polymer gel–organic synthetic polymer embedded anammox bacteria immobilized pellets†","authors":"Jun Li, Salma Tabassum and Hüseyin Altundag","doi":"10.1039/D4EW00538D","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4EW00538D","url":null,"abstract":"<p >The sewage denitrification process is concerned mainly with the treatment of industrial water with high NH<small>₄</small><small>⁺</small>–N (&gt;500 mg N L<small>⁻¹</small>). In this work, the denitrification effect of hybrid carrier (a natural polymer gel and an organic synthetic polymer)-embedded anammox bacteria pellets to treat NH<small>₄</small><small>⁺</small>–N urban sewage wastewater at low temperature through batch and continuous tests was studied. After 99 days of operation in a UASB reactor, the rapid start-up of anammox was realized. The TN volumetric load grew gradually as the influent substrate concentration increased. The final influent water had an NH<small>₄</small><small>⁺</small>–N load of 300 mg L<small>⁻¹</small>, an HRT of 5 h, a temperature of 32 °C, and NH<small>₄</small><small>⁺</small>–N and nitrite nitrogen removal efficiencies above 85%. Batch tests for polyvinyl alcohol, polyvinyl alcohol–sodium alginate and polyvinyl alcohol–sodium bicarbonate pellets were performed. The optimized pellets performed exceptionally well in terms of mass transfer, elasticity, and mechanical strength. Embedded carrier materials are enhanced by added sodium alginate, silica powder, CaCO<small>₃</small> powder and iron powder. A device containing embedded anammox bacteria pellets (EABP) was more resistant to low-temperature stress throughout the process of gradually cooling and lowering NH<small>₄</small><small>⁺</small>–N than a device containing mature free sludge. In the analysis and strengthening test of EABP at 15 °C, NH<small>₄</small><small>⁺</small>–N removal increased from 59% to 99%. At an HRT of 10 h, the increase in rate reached 67.8%. Compared to unembedded anammox bacteria pellets, the PS/PN of embedded pellets was lower, and the sludge activity and settleability were improved. Increasing HRT improved the ability of the embedded bacteria to withstand low temperatures, stimulating bacterial strains to produce more EPS. This study can be used to build a test to simulate future engineering applications in protecting the freshwater environment from the potential deleterious effects of pollutants from untreated sewage wastewater under low-temperature conditions and ammonium concentrations.</p>","PeriodicalId":75,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology","volume":" 11","pages":" 2809-2830"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142176504","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Improving chlorine residual predictions in water distribution systems using recurrent neural networks","authors":"Ammar Riyadh, Abdullah Zayat, Anas Chaaban and Nicolas M. Peleato","doi":"10.1039/D4EW00329B","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4EW00329B","url":null,"abstract":"<p >The management of water quality in distribution systems is a pervasive challenge. A high degree of uncertainty in water demand, reaction rates, and conditions of the pipe networks results in significant discrepancies between expected and observed water quality. In an effort to enhance the prediction of chlorine residual within water distribution systems (WDS), this study utilized full-scale WDS data to investigate the capabilities of a hydraulic model EPANET-Water Network Tool for Resilience (WNTR) coupled with process-based chlorine residual and data-driven models. Calculation and analysis of observed chlorine decay rates over 19 weeks of recorded data from a full-scale WDS (<em>n</em> = 19 512) demonstrated significant non-linearities and complex relationships with operational parameters and water quality. Linear regression was applied as a baseline method to model the relationship between water quality parameters and chlorine residual, but its limitations in capturing complex, non-linear interactions prompted a transition towards more sophisticated neural network architectures. Furthermore, EPANET-WNTR coupled with a first-order chlorine residual model showed poor performance in predicting chlorine residuals at a downstream node over the full range of flow conditions with high-frequency. Utilizing a windowing technique to account for sequences representing significant travel times in the dataset, the shift to neural networks, including convolutional neural networks (CNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM) networks demonstrated a significantly enhanced ability to incorporate temporal information and predict chlorine residual. The models achieved mean absolute errors as low as 0.022 mg L<small>⁻¹</small> and <em>R</em><small>²</small> as high as 0.952 using a 4-layer LSTM. This research illustrates the effectiveness of adopting data-driven approaches that can capture the relationships and dynamics of water quality parameters based on previous data, marking a significant advancement in water quality management within WDS.</p>","PeriodicalId":75,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology","volume":" 10","pages":" 2533-2545"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141930326","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A comparative study on optimizing electrocoagulation for organic contaminant removal in shale gas fracturing wastewater","authors":"Lingjie Xu, Hua Zhang, Yilin Wang, Qingji Wang, Xiaopeng Wang, Zhen Luo and Xiaojuan Zhai","doi":"10.1039/D4EW00373J","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4EW00373J","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Shale gas fracturing wastewater (FW) exhibits high total dissolved solids (TDS) content, averaging 13 g L<small>⁻¹</small>, along with an average total suspended solids (TSS) content of 676 mg L<small>⁻¹</small> and an average chemical oxygen demand (COD) content of 1370 mg L<small>⁻¹</small>. Chemical coagulation processes are effective in removing suspended solids but perform poorly in removing organic contaminants. Consequently, the electrocoagulation (EC) process was employed to enhance the COD removal efficiency from shale gas FW. The EC process performance was assessed by examining various operational parameters such as pretreatment methods, current density levels, pH values, and reaction times. It was found that chemical coagulation achieved a COD removal efficiency of 43.1% at a dosage of 500 mg L<small>⁻¹</small>. Compared to chemical coagulants at the same concentration, the EC process demonstrated a higher COD removal efficiency and was nearly one-fifth of the cost. When the FW samples were treated directly by the EC process, the optimal COD removal efficiency of up to 85% was achieved under the conditions of 70 A m<small>⁻²</small> current density, a pH of 7, and a reaction time of 20 minutes. However, after aeration pretreatment for 30 minutes, the optimum removal efficiency of 88.3% occurred at a current density of 50 A m<small>⁻²</small> and a reaction time of 15 minutes. The pseudo first-order model was found to be more suitable for simulating both COD and DOC removal in the EC process with significant coefficients (<em>R</em><small>²</small> &gt; 0.89). The results confirmed that the EC process combined with aeration pretreatment is an innovative alternative for real-scale shale gas FW treatment.</p>","PeriodicalId":75,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology","volume":" 10","pages":" 2500-2508"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141930329","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"UV-LED irradiation for biofouling reduction in drip irrigation emitters fed with wastewater effluent†","authors":"Yael Gilboa, Barak White, Inbar Shlomo, Karl G. Linden and Eran Friedler","doi":"10.1039/D4EW00271G","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4EW00271G","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Crop irrigation with treated wastewater effluent using drip irrigation has become common as the demand for water supply has increased. Because of the quality characteristics of treated wastewater and the narrow and winding geometry of the drip emitter's structure, it is susceptible to clogging. Emitter clogging reduces flow and increases flow variability between emitters that can lead to water stress on crops, thereby reducing crop yield. Several methods to minimize emitter clogging have been suggested and applied; however many drawbacks are associated with them. The use of UV-LEDs (UV light-emitting diodes) is a non-chemical disinfection method that holds great promise for disinfection and biofouling prevention in irrigation systems. In this research, biofouling formation potential was investigated for 12 weeks, in a large pilot-scale irrigation rig consisting of three parallel pipelines, comparing three disinfection treatments: UV-LED, chlorine, and no treatment. The results indicate that the discharges of UV-LED and chlorine-treated lines were similar. However, analyzing the internal fouling material of the opened drippers revealed the significant advantage of the UV-LED treatment, when both OCT (optical coherence tomography) image processing and EPS (extracellular polymeric substance) secretion within the clogging substances indicated significant biofilm inhibition by UV-LED irradiation as compared to the other alternatives. The present study is a proof-of-concept of a new approach of using UV-LED irradiation for minimizing biofouling formation in emitters fed with treated wastewater. UV-LED technology has great potential to become an attractive and feasible alternative for replacing chlorine as a water disinfection technology, specifically for agriculture use.</p>","PeriodicalId":75,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology","volume":" 11","pages":" 2723-2735"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-08-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2024/ew/d4ew00271g?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141930327","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}