Process Safety and Environmental Protection 126 (2019) 259–268

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Process Safety and Environmental Protection

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/psep

Advanced disinfecting and post-treating the biologically treated

hospital wastewater in the UVC/H2 O2 and VUV/H2 O2 processes:
Performance comparison and detoxification efficiency
Gholamreza Moussavi ∗ , Eshrat Fathi, Mahsa Moradi
Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The present study compares the ultraviolet (UV)-based AOPs for the disinfection and the post-treatment
Received 23 January 2019 of the biologically-treated hospital wastewater (BHW). It was found that the vacuum UV (VUV) pho-
Received in revised form 10 April 2019 toreactor was much more efficient than the UVC photoreactor in inactivation of E. coli. A 6.4 and 3.7 log
Accepted 11 April 2019
E. coli inactivation (from an initial concentration of 1.09 × 1010 CFU/mL) was achieved in the VUV and
Available online 17 April 2019
UVC photoreactors, respectively, operated under similar conditions at the neutral pH of water. In the
case of continuous-flow operation, the complete inactivation of E. coli was achieved in the VUV photore-
Keywords:
actor in hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 3 min. However, the UVC photoreactor could not attain the
Advanced oxidation process
VUV process
same performance even at the longer HRT of 10 min. Adding H2 O2 to the VUV photoreactor improved
Hydroxyl radical the removal of total organic carbon (TOC) from the BHW. The TOC removal in the recirculated VUV pho-
TOC removal toreactor improved from 10.8%–61.7% in the reaction time of 10 min at the presence of the optimum
Disinfection H2 O2 amount of 3 mM whereas the TOC removal in the UVC/H2 O2 operated at the similar conditions
was only 13.1%. When operated under flow-through condition, 93.6% of TOC could be removed from the
BHW in the VUV/H2 O2 process at the HRT of 10 min where the complete bacterial inactivation and deter-
gent removal was also achieved. The electrical energy consumption was 52.9, 12.2, and 6.5 kW h/m3 in
the UVC/H2 O2 , VUV and VUV/H2 O2 processes, respectively, when operated at the HRT of 10 min under
identical conditions for TOC removal. The VUV/H2 O2 process could also degrade most of the residual
substances in the BHW thus efficiently detoxified the BHW to the level sufficient for discharging into
the water environment. Accordingly, the VUV/H2 O2 process is an efficient, energy-effective, and thus
emerging method for the disinfection and the post-treatment of the hospital wastewater.
© 2019 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction receiving environments, the effluent from the hospital wastewater

The wastewater generated in the hospitals consists of a high
concentration of bacteria and organic contaminants including
pharmaceuticals, which are conventionally treated in the activated
sludge process (Ooi et al., 2018). However, the activated sludge pro-
cess is inefficient in bacterial inactivation as well as in removing
the toxic and recalcitrant compounds such as pharmaceuticals due
to their low biodegradability (Ooi et al., 2018; Rodríguez-Chueca
et al., 2018). Therefore, a high concentration of the microbial agents
and the toxic and recalcitrant organic compounds are present
in the biologically-treated hospital wastewater (BHW) streams
(Giannakis et al., 2018). To prevent the contamination of the
∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: moussavi@modares.ac.ir (G. Moussavi).
treatment plants need to be post-treated using advanced processes
efficient in the degradation of residual organic compounds. In the
other hand, the chlorination is the method of choice used for the
disinfection of the effluents from wastewater treatment plants that
is resulted in the formation of the trihalomethanes due to the inter-
action between chlorine and organic compounds. Therefore, the
processes other than the chlorination need to be adopted for the
disinfection of the BHW. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) have
been extensively investigated during recent decades for water and
wastewater treatment. AOPs have been efficiently examined for the
degradation of different groups of recalcitrant compounds and for
the microbial inactivation (Byrne et al., 2018). Several reports focus-
ing on the treatment of hospital wastewater using AOPs is available.
For instance, the efficacy of Fenton process (Munoz et al., 2016) and
the catalytic wet peroxide oxidation(CWPO)-photoassisted process
catalyzed by ilmenite (García-Muñoz et al., 2017) were examined

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psep.2019.04.016
0957-5820/© 2019 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
260 G. Moussavi et al. / Process Safety and Environmental Protection 126 (2019) 259–268

for treating the real hospital wastewater. Zheng et al. (2018) inves-
tigated the electro-peroxone AOP as a pretreatment to enhance
the performance of a sequencing batch reactor for treating sim-
ulated hospital wastewater. In addition, AOPs have been tested for
post-treating the effluent from the hospital wastewater biologi-
cal treatment plants. The UV/TiO2 /O3 process showed a potential
capacity for post-treating (disinfection and detoxification) of BHWs
(Machado et al., 2007). Giannakis et al. (2018) evaluated the UVC,
UVC/H2 O2 , and UV/Fenton processes as the post-biological treat-
ment method against enteric microorganisms in synthetic hospital
wastewater and obtained a considerable inactivation rate. The per-
formance of an electrochemical AOP was tested for post-treatment
of the effluent from a membrane bioreactor treating synthetic hos-
pital wastewater fortified with four pharmaceutical pollutants and
concluded that the combined system is a promising strategy in the
removal of pharmaceuticals from synthetic wastewater (Ouarda
et al., 2018). The reported studies indicated that the combined
biological-AOP system is a promising strategy in treating synthetic
hospital wastewater (Giannakis et al., 2018; Ouarda et al., 2018).
VUV-based AOPs are a newly developed class of advanced
oxidation technologies capable of efficiently mineralizing the dif-
ferent groups of recalcitrant compounds (Moussavi et al., 2018a).
In this processes, a high amount of hydroxyl radical (• OH) is gener-
ated from the photochemical ionization and homolysis of water
molecules irradiated with UV photons with the wavelength of
185 nm (Imoberdorf and Mohseni, 2011; Moussavi et al., 2014). It Fig. 1. Schematic of the experimental setup (1. Photoreactor, 2. Sleeve, 3. UV lamp,
has been also shown that the addition of some oxidants as H2 O2 4. Inlet/recirculation tank, 5. Peristaltic pump, 6. Outlet line, 7. Valve (open during
to the VUV photoreactor can increase the generation of • OH and recirculation operation), 8. Valve (open during continuous flow), 9. Outlet tank, 10.
thus improve the degradation efficiency (Moussavi et al., 2018a). Airflow, 11. Off-gas).

Thus, the VUV/H2 O2 as an emerged promising process might be

very efficient for simultaneously disinfection and organic com- Table 1
The mean (5 samples) characteristics of the BHW effluent used in the present study.
pounds mineralization in the BHW. Nonetheless, reviewing the
available literature revealed that no report is available to date on Parameter Unit Value
the application of the VUV/H2 O2 for simultaneously disinfection Microbial density CFU/mL 3.6 × 1013
and post-treatment of the real effluent of the BHW. TSS mg/L 44
Accordingly, the present study deals with investigating the TOC mg/L 78.6
performance of the VUV/H2 O2 as a new AOP compared with COD mg/L 110
BOD5 mg/L 27.5
the UVC/H2 O2 as a classical AOP for the disinfection and the
UV absorbance (UVA) cm1− 0.458
post-treatment of the effluent from a BHW. The possibility of Specific UVA L/mg.m 0.583
continuous-flow operation of the selected AOPs was also evalu- Detergent mg/L 3.65
ated. The detoxification and degradation of the toxic compounds in pH — 7.7
Electrical conductivity mS/cm 1.85
the BWH using the VUV/H2 O2 were also examined.
Nitrate mg/L 18.2
Sulfate mg/L 163.2
Ammonia mg/L 53.1
2. Materials and methods

2.1. Experimental setup
The schematic of the experimental setup is shown in Fig. 1,
which consisted of a tubular Pyrex photoreactor, an aeration sys-
tem (0.8 L/min), a peristaltic pump, a sample tank, and the tubing
and valves. The photoreactor had an inner diameter of 25 mm and
a height of 400 mm. A synthetic quartz sleeve (Heraeus Co.) with
a diameter of 15 mm was inserted in the reactor inside of which
a low-pressure mercury UV lamp was installed. The working vol-
ume of the photoreactor was 120 mL. Two types of UV lamps were
tested in the study. In the VUV experiments, a low-pressure mer-
cury UV lamp (5.7 W UVC output, Heraeus Co.) emitting radiation
at both 254 nm (UVC) and 185 nm (VUV < 10%) named hereafter as
VUV was used. The intensity of the UV photons emitted from the
VUV lamp was measured using a UV light detector (Boston Elec-
tronic Co.) at the outer surface of the sleeve to be 6.83 mW/cm2 .
For UVC experiments, a 9 W low-pressure monochromatic mer-
cury lamp (Philips Co.) emitting its maximum radiation at 254 nm
was replaced with the VUV lamp in the photoreactor. The light
molar absorption coefficient of H2 O2 at the wavelength around
200 nm is about 180 L/(mol.cm) while at 254 nm is approximately
19.6 L/(mol.cm) (Mierzwa et al., 2018), therefore a greater radical
species and thus degradation percentage would be generated by
the VUV than the UVC irradiation of H2 O2 .
2.2. Wastewater sample and experimental procedure
The synthetic microbial suspension was prepared by adding
aliquots of E. coli suspension into the dechlorinated tap water.
The real samples were taken from the effluent of an activated
sludge process treating the wastewater of a local general hospi-
tal. The main characteristics of the real BHW sample are given in
Table 1. The BHW was first filtered using a 0.45 ␮m paper filter to
remove the particles and the filtrate was used in the reaction exper-
iments. The present study was divided into two phases. Phase I
was designed for evaluating the inactivation of E. coli in the syn-
thetic microbial suspension in the UVC and VUV photoreactors.
E. coli was selected as the conventional fecal contamination indi-
cator (Rodríguez-Chueca et al., 2018). Phase II was allocated for
comparing the efficacy of the UVC/H2 O2 and VUV/H2 O2 processes
 G. Moussavi et al. / Process Safety and Environmental Protection 126 (2019) 259–268
for the disinfection (bacterial inactivation), detergent degradation
and total organic carbon (TOC) removal of the effluent of a BHW.
In both phases of the study, the experiments were conducted
in both batch (recirculation) and continuous flow (once through)
mode. In the recirculation operation mode, 200 mL of the aqueous
solution (phase I) or the BHW sample (phase II) was transferred
into the inlet/recirculation tank and was recirculated at 1 L/min
flow rate through the photoreactor and the effluent was returned
back to the recirculation tank. Then the UV lamp was switched
on and the samples were collected in the sterile flasks from the
recirculation tank at the target intervals. In the continuous flow
operation, the prepared synthetic microbial suspension (phase I)
or real wastewater sample (phase II) was poured into the inlet tank
and the effluent was directed to the separate outlet tank and the
UV lamp was switched on. Then the samples were collected in the
sterile flasks from the outlet line in each HRT after passing two HRTs
from the beginning of the test. Before each test, the photoreactor
was water-rinsed and disinfected by turning on the UV lamp lasted
for 10 min. In addition, the tanks and lab glassware were rinsed
with water and then were disinfected by autoclave. The synthetic
microbial suspension was prepared by spiking E. coli suspension
in the dechlorinated tap water. Fresh E. coli culture was prepared
in the specific culture medium and incubated at 37 ◦ C in a shak-
ing incubator (150 rpm) for 22 h. The prepared E. coli suspension
was centrifuged at 3500 rpm for 25 min and then the sediment was
suspended in the sterilized normal saline solution (NaCl 0.9%) and
diluted in the dechlorinated tap water to the desired concentration.
In phase I of the study, the effect of suspension pH, salinity (NaCl)
concentration and contact time under the recirculation operation
condition and the effect of hydraulic retention time (HRT) under the
continuous operation condition were evaluated on E. coli inactiva-
tion in the UVC and VUV photoreactors. In phase II of the study, the
effect of H2 O2 and HRT was investigated on the performance of the
UVC/H2 O2 and VUV/H2 O2 processes for post-treating the effluent
of a BHW. The bacterial inactivation, the degradation of detergents
and the reduction of TOC were selected as the performance indices
for this phase.
2.3. Analysis
The bacterial inactivation was evaluated by the standard plate
counting method under sterile conditions: plating the ten-fold
serial dilutions of the taken samples on agar culture medium and
incubated at 37 ◦ C for 24 h. Sterile conditions were controlled with
plating blank samples during the microbial plate count proce-
dure. Plating was conducted in duplicate and the mean values of
viable bacteria (E. coli in phase I and total heterotrophs in phase II)
were reported as colony forming unit (CFU) per mL of the sample
(CFU/mL).
The performance of the UVC and VUV photoreactors in bacterial
inactivation was evaluated based on the log removal value (LRV).
The LRV was determined from Eq. (1) taking the logarithm of the
ratio of bacteria concentration in the influent and effluent of the
reactor. An LRV of 1 equals to 90% removal of bacteria.
 Influent bacteria concentration 
LRV = log10 (1)
Effluent bacteria concentration
The concentration of detergents was determined as per method
5540 C. in standard method (APHA, 2017). The TOC concentration
was measured using a Shimadzu TOC analyzer. The removal per-
centages of detergents and TOC were calculated from Eq. (2) in
which C0 and Ct stand for the concentrations of detergent or TOC at
the beginning and time t of the contact, respectively. In the flow-
261
through operations, t corresponds to the hydraulic retention time
(HRT).
C0 − Ct
Removal efficiency (%) = × 100 (2)
C0
The kinetics of E. coli inactivation was evaluated based on Chick’s
model as shown in Eq. (3), assuming that the inactivation rate is first
order with respect to initial cell concentration (Maddigpua et al.,
2018; Sreeja and Shetty, 2017).
N 
0
log = −kt (3)
Nt
where N0 and Nt are the viable E. coli colony counts (CFU/mL) at the
beginning and the contact time t, respectively, and k the first order
inactivation rate constant (min−1 ).
2.4. LC–MS analysis
Identification of the organic constituents in the effluents of BHW
and of VUV/H2 O2 process was carried out by Waters Alliance 2695
HPLC-Micromass Quattro micro API Mass Spectrometer using an
Atlantis T3-C18 column (3␮, 2.1 × 100 mm). The column tempera-
ture was 30 ◦ C. The mobile phase was formic acid (0.1%), acetonitrile
and water with a flow rate of 0.25 mL/min. The mass spectroscopy
was conducted in two modes of ESI+, cone volt. 35 V, capillary volt:
4 kV and ESI-, cone volt. 20 V, capillary volt: 3 kV.
2.5. Toxicity bioassessment
The acute toxicity of the BHW before and after treatment in the
VUV/H2 O2 process was determined by measuring the mortality of
Daphnia magna based on the EPA-821-R-02-012 procedure (EPA,
2002). The residual H2 O2 in the samples was removed by adding
10 mM sodium pyruvate before toxicity measurements. The sam-
ples were evaluated by six dilutions between 6.25 and 100%, each
conducted in duplicates and the LC50 was estimated using the pro-
bit analysis for the before and after samples. The toxic unit (TU) was
then calculated as TU = 100/LC50 to determine the toxicity level of
the samples (Persoone et al., 2003).
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Comparing UVC and VUV photoreactors in E. coli inactivation
Fig. 2 compares the inactivation of E. coli in the UVC and VUV
photoreactors at the pHs of 6, 7 and 8. Based on Fig. 2, no consid-
erable difference is observed for E. coli inactivation between the
selected pHs neither in the UVC photoreactor nor in the VUV one,
suggesting that the performance of these photoreactors will not be
affected by the pH of normal waters. Yoon et al. (2017) also found
that after increasing pH from 7 to 8, the rates of E. coli inactivation
did not vary for UVC and UVC/H2 O2 processes. The average LRV of
E. coli calculated from Eq. (1) in the neutral pH was 3.7 and 6.4 in
the UVC and VUV photoreactors, respectively.
It is seen that E. coli inactivation in the VUV photoreactor was
around three orders of magnitude greater than that in the UVC
photoreactor. E. coli was inactivated in the UVC reactor by the
germicidal effect of UVC photons, which produced photochemical
modifications of DNA pyrimidine bases and damaged the proteins
resulted in the cell death (Gayán et al., 2013; Giannakis et al., 2018).
It has been indicated that VUV photons are not directly efficient for
water and wastewater disinfection (Wang et al., 2010). In another
word, achieving a high degree of E. coli inactivation in the VUV pho-
toreactor can be related to the formation of the powerful oxidative
ȮH through the reactions given in Eqs. (4) and (5), which is more
efficient for the inactivation of microorganisms.
262 G. Moussavi et al. / Process Safety and Environmental Protection 126 (2019) 259–268

Fig. 2. Comparing the inactivation of E. coli using the recirculated-flow (a) UVC and (b) VUV photoreactors at the pHs of 6, 7 and 8 as a function of contact time.

•
In the VUV photoreactor, OH is generated from the photo- Since ȮH has much stronger oxidative and thus germicidal
chemical reactions between VUV radiations and water molecules potential than the UVC photons, E. coli inactivation was much more
(Bagheri and Mohseni, 2015; Moussavi et al., 2018b). efficient in the VUV photoreactor than in the UVC one.
 =185 nm In order to confirm the contribution of ȮH in the inactivation
H2 O + VUV → ȮH + Ḣ (4) of E. coli, the performance of the UVC and VUV photoreactors was
 =185 nm compared at the absence and presence of tert-Butyl alcohol (TBA) as
H2 O + VUV → ȮH + H+ + e− (5)
aq a strong ȮH scavenger (k = 3.8 × 108 – 7.6 × 108 M−1 s−1 ). As Fig. 3
Indeed, in the VUV process, in addition to the direct action of shows, the inactivation of E. coli in the VUV photoreactor decreased
UVC photons, the generated ȮH could inactivate bacteria through considerably at the presence of TBA and was very close to that in the
the microbial membrane oxidation and the capsid proteins denat- UVC photoreactor. For instance, the LRV achieved in the VUV pho-
uration (Giannakis et al., 2018). Therefore, the performance of the toreactor at the contact time of 10 s was 6.4 and 4.1 in the absence
VUV was much better than the UVC process operated under the and presence of TBA, respectively. Considering TBA as a selective
same experimental conditions. ȮH scavenger (Moussavi et al., 2018c), the decrease in the per-
Since the reactor was aerated during the reaction, a considerable formance of the VUV photoreactor at the presence of tert-butanol
amount of oxygen was dissolved in water. The direct photolysis of clearly confirm that ȮH played the main role in the inactivation of
O2 by VUV photons could result in the production of ozone (Eqs. (6) E. coli.
and (7)). Ozone was further converted to extra ȮH by irradiation In addition, the LRV did not considerably affect in the UVC pho-
with part of UVC photons (Eq. (8)) (Bagheri and Mohseni, 2015; toreactor at the absence and presence of TBA (Fig. 3), suggesting
Moussavi et al., 2018a,b). that the UVC photons were the main disinfection agent in this reac-
tor. Indeed, since maximum absorption wavelength of TBA does not
O2 + VUV →  = 185 nm2O• (6) coincided with the UVC wavelength, it did not absorbthe UVC pho-
• tons and thus could not adversely affect the performance of UVC
O2 + O → O3 (7)
photoreactor in the inactivation of E. coli.
 =254 nm
O3 + H2 O + UVC → 2ȮH + O2 (8)
 G. Moussavi et al. / Process Safety and Environmental Protection 126 (2019) 259–268 263

Table 2
E. coli plate count in the VUV and UVC photoreactors at different NaCl concentrations.

VUV photoreactor

Time (s) NaCl = 0 g/L NaCl = 0.5 g/L NaCl = 1 g/L NaCl = 2 g/L NaCl = 3 g/L NaCl = 4 g/L NaCl = 5 g/L

0 1.09E+10 1.09E+10 1.09E+10 1.09E+10 1.09E+10 1.09E+10 1.09E+10

5 1.5E+04 2.0E+04 2.4E+04 2.9E+04 3.3E+04 4.6E+04 5.5E+04
10 4.0E+03 9.0E+03 1.2E+04 1.8E+04 2.6E+04 3.2E+04 4.1E+04
15 0.0E+00 3.0E+03 8.0E+03 1.1E+04 1.8E+04 2.4E+04 3.2E+04
20 1.0E+03 5.0E+03 8.0E+03 1.4E+04 1.9E+04 2.6E+04
30 0.0E+00 2.0E+03 5.0E+03 9.0E+03 1.3E+04 1.9E+04
40 0.0E+00 3.0E+03 5.0E+03 8.0E+03 1.3E+04
50 0.0E+00 3.0E+03 4.0E+03 6.0E+03
60 0.0E+00 2.0E+03 3.0E+03
120 0.0E+00 0.0E+00

UVC photoreactor

Time (s) NaCl = 0 g/L NaCl = 0.5 g/L NaCl = 1 g/L NaCl = 2 g/L NaCl = 3 g/L NaCl = 4 g/L NaCl = 5 g/L

0 1.09E+10 1.09E+10 1.09E+10 1.09E+10 1.09E+10 1.09E+10 1.09E+10

10 2.4E+06 2.2E+06 2.0E+06 1.9E+06 1.7E+06 1.6E+06 1.4E+06
20 3.4E+05 3.0E+05 2.8E+05 2.1E+05 1.8E+05 1.4E+05 1.0E+05
30 5.0E+04 1.5E+05 2.0E+04 1.5E+04 1.0E+04 0.0E+00 0.0E+00
40 3.0E+04 1.0E+04 1.0E+04 0.0E+00 0.0E+00
50 0.0E+00 0.0E+00 0.0E+00

Fig. 3. Effect of radical scavenger on E. coli inactivation in the recirculated-flow UVC

and VUV photoreactors at pH = 7.
The effect of water salinity based on NaCl concentration was
evaluated on the performance of the UVC and VUV photoreactors
under neutral pH and the results are given in Table 2. To better
illustrate the effect of salinity, the E. coli inactivation rate constant,
k, was determined based on Table 2 for the different NaCl concen-
trations and the results are shown in Fig. 4. As seen in Fig. 4, the
presence of NaCl markedly decreased the performance of the VUV
photoreactor for the inactivation of E. coli and caused the reduc-
tion of E. coli inactivation rate constant. It is known that chloride
anion strongly absorb 185 nm photons to generate chloride radical
(Cl• ) thus, the greater fraction of 185 nm photons emitted from the
VUV lamp are absorbed by chloride anions than by water molecules
(Furatian and Mohseni, 2018).
Cl− →  = 185 nmCl• + e−
aq
Therefore, the production of ȮH (Eqs. (4) and (5)) in the VUV
photoreactor would be limited at the presence of chloride anions
resulted in the decrease in E. coli inactivation rate. Although Cl• is
generated from the photochemical reaction between 185 nm pho-
tons and chloride anions, Cl• has much lower oxidation potential
than ȮH (Moussavi and Rezaei, 2017), causing an overall reduction
in the inactivation performance. The reduction in E. coli inactiva-
tion rate can be also attributed to the scavenging effect of chloride
Fig. 4. Effect of NaCl concentration on the rate of E. coli inactivation in the
recirculated-flow UVC and VUV photoreactors.
anion on ȮH. In fact, chloride ions could react with ȮH (Eq. (10)) and
scavenge it (k = 2 × 107 M−1 s−1 ) (Nakatani et al., 2007) and thereby
further limited the ȮH available for the inactivation of E. coli.
Cl− + ȮH → ClOH•− (10)
In contrast, the inactivation rate constant increased in the UVC
photoreactor with the increase in NaCl concentration (Fig. 4). It can
be attributed to the generation of Cl• and Cl2 •− reactive species
from the photochemical reactions between UVC photons and chlo-
ride anions (Huang et al., 2018; Yang et al., 2014). These radicals are
more powerful than UVC photons resulted in improving the inac-
tivation rate of E. coli. The full-scale water disinfection systems are
(9) conventionally operated in a continuous-flow mode. Therefore, the
effect of HRT was evaluated on the performance of the UVC and VUV
photoreactors in the inactivated of E. coli. Fig. 5 shows the effluent
E. coli concentration as a function of HRT in the UVC and VUV pho-
toreactors under neutral pH. It is seen in Fig. 5 that the complete
inactivation of E. coli was achieved in the VUV photoreactor at an
HRT as short as 3 min (liquid flow rate = 40 mL/min) whereas in the
UVC photoreactor the same performance could not be reached even
in an HRT of 10 min (liquid flow rate = 12 mL/min). The inactivation
rate constant was 0.221 and 0.874 min−1 in the UVC and VUV pho-
264 G. Moussavi et al. / Process Safety and Environmental Protection 126 (2019) 259–268
Fig. 5. Effect of HRT on the performance of E. coli in the continuous-flow UVC and
VUV photoreactors under neutral pH.
toreactors, respectively. Much greater rate of E. coli inactivation
in the VUV photoreactor (4 times) is related to the generation of
reactive ȮH , which was discussed above. Attaining the complete
inactivation of a high population of E. coli in a relatively short con-
tact time of 3 min in the VUV photoreactor suggests that this system
can be efficiently applied for water and wastewater disinfection.
Several studies have been published on E. coli inactivation
using different AOPs and following results were reported: 6 log
inactivation in 180 min (0.119 min−1 ) in the solar light/carbon
nanoparticles process (Maddigpua et al., 2018), 100% inactivation
in 60 min (0.711 min−1 ) in an electrochemically assisted photo-
catalysis process with Ag-Ti/TiO2 as catalyst (dos Santos et al.,
2017), 100% of 4 × 109 CFU/mL inactivation in 60 min (0.043 min−1 )
in a photocatalytic process with Ag@TiO2 nanoparticles as cata-
lysts under solar light irradiation (Sreeja and Vidya, 2017), 100%
of 105 –106 inactivation in 90 min (0.18 min−1 ) in a HSO− 5 /UV − A
LED photocatalytic process (Rodríguez-Chueca et al., 2017), 100%
of 105 E. coli inactivation in 60 min (0.18 min−1 ) in a pilot-scale
ilmenite/persulfate/solar light reactor (Xia et al., 2018), 6 log inac-
tivation in 45 min (107 CFU/mL) in the UV/H2 O2 process (Miranda
et al., 2016), 100% of 105 -106 inactivation in 5 min (0.92 min−1 )
in the H2 O2 /solar light (50 W/m2 ) process (Nahim-Granados et al.,
2018), 4-log inactivation (107 CFU/mL) in the microbial electrolytic-
Fenton process (Zhou et al., 2018).
3.2. Comparing UVC and VUV processes for treating the BHW
effluent
In order to confirm the real-case applicability potential of the
VUV photoreactor, the disinfection and post-treating the BHW sam-
ple was investigated in the VUV photoreactor in comparison with
the UVC system.
3.2.1. Effect of H2 O2 on TOC removal from BHW effluent using the
recirculated-flow UVC and VUV systems
Fig. 6 depicts the effect of H2 O2 on the performance of the UVC
and VUV photoreactors in TOC removal from the BHW effluent
under recirculated-flow operation condition. It is seen in Fig. 6 that
the TOC removal was around 1% and 10.8% in the UVC and VUV
photoreactors at the reaction time of 10 min in the absence of H2 O2 ,
indicating that the single UVC or VUV irradiation are not efficient
processes for the sufficient reduction of the carbon content of the
BHW. To improve the TOC removal percentages, the photoreactors
were operated at the presence of different concentrations of H2 O2 .
Based on Fig. 6, the TOC removal increased from 9.2 to 14.7% in the
UVC photoreactor when the amount of H2 O2 added was increased
from 1 to 5 mM. In the VUV photoreactor, the increase in H2 O2 from
1 to 3 mM caused the improvement of the TOC removal from 18.3
Fig. 6. Effect of H2 O2 on the performance of the recirculated-flow UVC and VUV
photoreactors in TOC removal from the BHW.
to 61.7%, whereas a further increase in H2 O2 to 4 and then 5 mM
resulted in the reduction of TOC removal to 51.4 and then 47.3%,
respectively. The increase in the performance of the UVC photore-
actor at the presence of H2 O2 can be related to the formation of
highly oxidative species of ȮH upon the photolysis of H2 O2 by the
UV254 photons (Aguilar et al., 2018) as shown in Eq. (11).
H2 O2 + UV254 → 2ȮH (11)
In the VUV photoreactor, in addition to Eqs. (4), (5), (11), ȮH was
also generated from the irradiation of H2 O2 by the UV185 photons
(Eq. (12)) as well as from the interaction between H2 O2 and e− aq
(Eq. (13)) (Moussavi et al., 2018a). Since the molar absorption coef-
ficient of H2 O2 at 185 nm is much higher than at 254 nm (Mierzwa
eta l., 2018), therefore a greater amount of ȮH could be produced in
the VUV photoreactor than in the UVC one in the presence of H2 O2 ,
resulting in the achievement of a better TOC removal.
H2 O2 (aq) + UV185 → 2ȮH (12)
−
H2 O2 (aq) + e−
aq → ȮH + OH (13)
The reduction of TOC removal in the VUV photoreactor in
the elevated H2 O2 levels can be related to the recombination of
increased ȮH to form H2 O2 (Eq. (14)) (Imoberdorf and Mohseni,
2011; Moussavi et al., 2018a). Therefore, the amount of 3 mM was
selected as the optimum level of H2 O2 in the next experiments.
HO• + HO• → H2 O2 (14)
Kern et al. (2013) investigated the treatment of a hospital
laundry wastewater with photocatalytic ozonation process and
reported 59.1% removal of COD and complete inactivation of total
coliforms and E. coli in the UV/O3 /Fe2+ process at a reaction time of
180 min. Around 46% of COD removal was obtained within 60 min
when treating hospital wastewater in the O3 /UV/H2 O2 process
(Arslan et al., 2014). Real hospital wastewater with initial TOC con-
centration of 110 mg/L and total coliform of 4.16 × 106 was treated
in a Fenton process working at or above 70 ◦ C and around 50% of
TOC reduction and complete bacterial inactivation were achieved
within 4 h (Munoz et al., 2016). The combined VUV + UVC pho-
toreactor could reduce the chemical oxygen demand (COD) from a
hospital laundry wastewater by around 25% (Schwaickhardt et al.,
2017). A 74% TOC removal and complete bacterial inactivation in
real hospital wastewater having the initial TOC concentration of
110 mg/L and bacterial concentration of 3.8 × 106 was obtained
when treated for 5 h in the CWPO-photoassisted process (García-
Muñoz et al., 2017). Around 50% of TOC (from 103.9 mg/L) reduction
was achieved in an electro-peroxone process pretreating simulated
hospital wastewater within 60 min under the optimal O3 concen-
tration of 5 g/h, current of 400 mA and solution pH of 9 (Zheng et al.,
2018).
 G. Moussavi et al. / Process Safety and Environmental Protection 126 (2019) 259–268
Fig. 7. Comparing the performance of the continues-flow UVC, VUV, UVC/H2 O2 and
VUV/H2 O2 processes in (a) TOC removal, (b) detergent removal and (c) bacterial
inactivation of the BHW in an HRT of 10 min and H2 O2 concentration (when needed)
of 3 mM.
3.2.2. Effect of HRT on the performance of continuous-flow
UVC/H2 O2 and VUV/H2 O2 processes
In order to evaluate the field applicability of the VUV/H2 O2
process as the most efficient process, it was operated in continuous-
flow mode corresponding to the steady-state behavior and the
effect of HRT was evaluated on TOC removal from the effluent of
BHW in the VUV/H2 O2 process compared to the UVC, VUV and
UVC/H2 O2 processes. It is observed in Fig. 7a that the TOC con-
centration in the BHW effluent decreased from 78.9 mg/L (before
post-treatment) to 78.5, 45.8, 17.8 and 4.9 mg/L (corresponding
to <1, 45.8, 77.3 and 93.6%) after post-treating in the UVC, VUV,
UVC/H2 O2 and VUV/H2 O2 processes, respectively, in an HRT of
10 min. The VUV/H2 O2 process could also completely degrade
the detergents in the BHW effluent within a short HRT of 4 min
(Fig.7b). Based on the results shown in Fig. 7c, the performance
order of the investigated processes for the disinfection of the BHW
is as VUV/H2 O2 > VUV > UVC/H2 O2 > UVC processes. Indeed, the
VUV/H2 O2 could completely inactivate the viable bacteria in the
265
Fig. 8. The electrical energy per TOC removal order (EE/O) in the VUV,
UVC/H2 O2 , and VUV/H2 O2 processes (HRT = 10 min, H2 O2 concentration (when
needed) = 3 mM).
BHW effluent in an HRT of 10 min while a high concentration of
viable bacteria was present in the effluent of the other examined
processes operated under the same conditions. It should be noted
the control experiments conducted with only H2 O2 (UV lamp was
off) for the BHW sample indicated that the direct bacterial inac-
tivation by H2 O2 was negligible under the selected condition due
mainly to the short reaction time.
It is found in Fig. 7a–c that performance of the investigated
processes was lower for the degradation of organic compounds
(TOC and detergent removals) than for the disinfection, suggest-
ing that the process should be designed based on HRT required
for the achievement of the desired TOC removal. Similarly, Wols
et al. (2015) reported that the desired degradation efficiency in the
UV/H2 O2 process is lower than the desired disinfection levels.
3.2.3. Energy efficiency
The selected processes were also compared based on the elec-
trical energy per order (EE/O), which is defined as the electrical
energy (kWh) required to decrease the concentration of TOC by
one order of magnitude in a unit volume (Estefan, 2018). As the
selected processes were operated in flow-through mode, the EE/O
value (kWh/m3 /order) was calculated from Eq. (15) (Estefan, 2018).
 
P
EE/O = (15)
Q × log(C i /Cf )
where P (kW) and Q (m3 /h) stand for total input electrical power
(9 W for UVC and 5.7 W for VUV lamps) and volumetric flow rate,
respectively. Ci and Cf are inlet and outlet concentrations of the
target parameter.
Fig. 8 depicts the values of EE/O for the VUV, UVC/H2 O2 , and
VUV/H2 O2 processes calculated based on TOC removal (Fig. 7). The
EE/O was not calculated for UVC photoreactor as it attained insignif-
icant TOC removal (<1%). The values of EE/O were calculated to be
52.9, 12.2, and 6.5 kW h/m3 in the UVC/H2 O2 , VUV and VUV/H2 O2
processes, respectively, when operated under identical experimen-
tal conditions at an HRT of 10 min and the same H2 O2 concentration
(in the UVC/H2 O2 and VUV/H2 O2 processes) for TOC removal. It
is seen that the VUV/H2 O2 had the lowest EE/O value among the
tested processes for TOC removal, which is related to the high
rate of TOC removal in this process (Moussavi et al., 2018a). TOC
elimination between 5% and 32% was achieved in post-treating the
biologically pre-treated hospital wastewater using the UVC/H2 O2
process when 4 kW h/m3 of electrical energy were used (Köhler
et al., 2012). Figs. 7 and 8 clearly indicate that the VUV/H2 O2 pro-
cess is a very technically and energetically efficient technique for
disinfecting and post-treating the BHW.
266 G. Moussavi et al. / Process Safety and Environmental Protection 126 (2019) 259–268

Table 3
Identified organic constituents in the BHW effluent (UVC/VUV influent).

RTa ESI mode Experimental m/z Exact m/z Exact mass Best possible compound Best possible molecular formula Adduct ion

7.29 Negative 553 553.04 554.05 Cefsulodin sodium salt C22 H19 N4 NaO8 S2 [M−H]−
8.58 Negative 192 191.99 193.00 2,6-difluorobenzenesulfonamide C6 H5 F2 NO2 S [M−H]−
8.58 Negative 199 198.97 217.98 5-Sulfosalicylic acid C7 H6 O6 S [M−H-H2 O]−
8.58 Negative 383 383.10 402.12 Saphenamycin C23 H18 N2 O5 [M−H-H2 O]−
8.58 Negative 491 491.18 492.18 Cilnidipine C27 H28 N2 O7 [M−H]−
8.58 Negative 535 535.07 490.07 Cefamandole Nafate C19 H18 N6 O6 S2 [M+Formate]−
8.58 Negative 567 567.11 568.12 2”-O-p-Hydroxybenzoylorientin category C28 H24 O13 [M−H]−
9.095 Negative 267 266.94 285.96 Fenticlor C12 H8 Cl2 O2 S [M−H-H2 O]−
9.095 Negative 352 352.16 371.18 Lysidine C15 H25 N5 O6 [M−H-H2 O]−
9.095 Negative 388 388.01 389.02 Cyclothiazide C14 H16 ClN3 O4 S2 [M−H]−
9.095 Negative 467 467.09 468.10 Tartrazine acid C24 H20 O10 [M−H]−
9.095 Negative 617 617.04 572.04 Isorhamnetin 3-glucuronide-7-sulfate C22 H20 O16 S [M+Formate]−
9.357 Negative 438 437.96 438.97 Polythiazide C11 H13 ClF3 N3 O4 S3 [M−H]−
9.357 Negative 473 473.10 492.12 Isopyrenin C23 H24 O12 [M−H-H2 O]−
9.357 Negative 475 474.91 429.91 4,4’-azodibenzenearsonic acid C12 H12 As2 N2 O6 [M+Formate]−
9.357 Negative 485 485.14 486.15 Mycothiol C17 H30 N2 O12 S [M−H]−
9.357 Negative 500 500.11 519.13 Estramustine phosphate C23 H32 Cl2 NO6 P [M−H-H2 O]−
9.357 Negative 552 551.98 506.98 Phosphoadenosine phosphosulfate C10 H15 N5 O13 P2 S [M+Formate]−
10.487 Negative 209 208.98 228.00 3,5-dinitrosalicylic acid C7 H4 N2 O7 [M−H-H2 O]−
11.031 Negative 275 275.09 230.09 Bis-(4-hydroxybenzyl)ether C14 H14 O3 [M+Formate]−
11.707 Negative 207 206.86 161.86 Bromodichloromethane CHBrCl2 [M+Formate]−
25.773 Negative 103 103.00 104.01 Hydroxypyruvic acid C3 H4 O4 [M−H]−
25.773 Negative 530 503.19 504.20 Chlorhexidine C22 H30 Cl2 N10 [M−H]−
1.512 Positive 101 101.04 200.08 Monobenzone C13 H12 O2 [M+2H]2+
1.512 Positive 129 129.01 128.00 4-chlorophenol C6 H5 ClO [M+H]+
1.512 Positive 165 164.88 163.87 Tetrachloroethene C2 Cl4 [M+H]+
1.512 Positive 286 286.14 285.13 Morphine C17 H19 NO3 [M+H]+
1.512 Positive 300 300.15 299.15 Heterocodeine C18 H21 NO3 [M+H]+
1.512 Positive 315 315.15 332.15 Spectinomycin C14 H24 N2 O7 [M+H-H2 O]+
1.512 Positive 331 331.16 289.12 Ophthalmic acid C11 H19 N3 O6 [M+H+CH3 CN]+
1.512 Positive 336 335.95 352.96 Luliconazole C14 H9 Cl2 N3 S2 [M+H-H2 O]+
1.512 Positive 365 365.03 364.02 Chloramphenicol 3-acetate C13 H14 Cl2 N2 O6 [M+H]+
1.512 Positive 794 794.15 752.12 Loropetalin D C35 H28 O19 [M+H+CH3 CN]+
2.954 Positive 287 286.91 303.91 Dichlorphenamide C6 H6 Cl2 N2 O4 S2 [M+H-H2 O]+
2.954 Positive 392 392.12 350.09 Penicillin V C16 H18 N2 O5 S [M+H+CH3 CN]+
5.142 Positive 111 111.05 128.06 Naphthalene C10 H8 [M+H-H2 O]+
5.142 Positive 123 122.93 243.86 Tetrachloro-1,4 benzoquinone C6 Cl4 O2 [M+2H]2+
5.142 Positive 167 167.07 166.06 3,4-Dimethoxybenzaldehyde C9 H10 O3 [M+H]+
5.142 Positive 208 208.01 165.98 Hexafluoroacetone C3 F6 O [M+H+CH3 CN]+
5.142 Positive 392 392.14 350.11 Neorautenane C21 H18 O5 [M+H+CH3 CN]+
6.775 Positive 122 122.02 139.02 2-nitrophenol C6 H5 NO3 [M+H-H2 O]+
6.775 Positive 207 207.05 224.05 Phenazine-1-carboxylic acid C13 H8 N2 O2 [M+H-H2 O]+
6.775 Positive 236 236.04 253.05 Sulfamethoxazole C10 H11 N3 O3 S [M+H-H2 O]+
6.775 Positive 291 291.07 308.08 Alprazolam C17 H13 ClN4 [M+H-H2 O]+
6.775 Positive 372 372.10 371.10 Nedocromil C19 H17 NO7 [M+H]+
6.775 Positive 389 389.12 347.09 Cephalexin C16 H17 N3 O4 S [M+H+CH3 CN]+
6.775 Positive 462 462.05 461.04 Necrosulfonamide C18 H15 N5 O6 S2 [M+H]+
6.775 Positive 537 537.04 554.04 Ceftriaxone C18 H18 N8 O7 S3 [M+H-H2 O]+
8.278 Positive 426 426.05 425.04 Thiamine diphosphate C12 H19 N4 O7 P2 S [M+H]+
16.09 Positive 105 105.02 104.02 Urea-1-carboxylic acid C2 H4 N2 O3 [M+H]+
16.09 Positive 376 376.10 375.10 Azidocillin C16 H17 N5 O4 S [M+H]+
16.09 Positive 420 420.05 437.05 Cycloprothrin C24 H17 Cl2 NO3 [M+H-H2 O]+
16.09 Positive 463 463.19 421.16 Topotecan C23 H23 N3 O5 [M+H+CH3 CN]+
16.09 Positive 719 719.16 718.15 Salvianolic acid L C36 H30 O16 [M+H]+
26.829 Positive 757 757.08 757.08 P(1),P(3)-bis(5’-adenosyl) triphosphate C20 H27 N10 O16 P3 [M+H]+
a
Retention time (min).

3.2.4. Identification of organic constituents
In order to conduct a wide-scope screening of the BHW sam-
ple before and after treating in the VUV/H2 O2 process, LC–MS
analysis was carried out and the findings from the mass spec-
tra (Figs. S1–S4) are summarized in Tables 3 and 4, respectively.
As in Table 3, a notable number of constituents was identified
in the BHW; the majority of which included pharmaceuticals,
microbial metabolites, solvents, etc. and their transformation
products. These constituents were in forms of either unchanged
parent compounds or free/conjugated metabolites. In compliance
with previous studies (Brown et al., 2018; Ibáñez et al., 2017;
Martínez-Alcalá et al., 2017; 1-3), this screening also endorsed
that conventional WWTP is not successful for efficient degrada-
tion of a variety of constituents and micropollutants with varying
concentrations such as pharmaceuticals, solvents, etc. Therefore,
an additional treatment step was needed after the conventional
biological treatment process to efficiently degrade such toxic con-
stituents. Based on Table 4, the number of detectable constituents
dramatically decreased after treating the BHW in the VUV/H2 O2
process. Regarding the simultaneous multilateral mechanisms
occurring in the vacuum UV region (advanced oxidation, advanced
reduction, direct photolysis, etc.), various categories of compounds
with different molecular structures and tendencies undergo degra-
dation towards mineralization (Moradi and Moussavi, 2019) as it
was well-exhibited as TOC decrement for the studied sample. It
shows that the VUV/H2 O2 process is a very efficient technique for
degradation of toxic synthetic compounds present in the wastew-
ater and thus an advanced post-treating process justifying the
achievement of a high degree of TOC reduction in the experi-
ment.
 G. Moussavi et al. / Process Safety and Environmental Protection 126 (2019) 259–268 267

Table 4
Identified organic constituents in the UVC/VUV effluent.

RTa ESI mode Experimental m/z Exact m/z Exact mass Best possible compound Best possible molecular formula Adduct ion

7.21 Negative 213 213.03 214.03 Clofibric acid C10 H11 ClO3 [M−H]−
11.39 Negative 388 388.01 389.02 Cyclothiazide C14 H16 ClN3 O4 S2 [M−H]−
14.83 Negative 239 239.01 240.02 d-cystine C6 H12 N2 O4 S2 [M−H]−
19.49 Negative 354 354.02 355.02 Succinylsulfathiazole C13 H13 N3 O5 S2 [M−H]−
20.006 Negative 398 398.09 399.10 Nocardicin E C19 H17 N3 O7 [M−H]−
1.249 Positive 151 151.06 150.05 2-Deoxyribonucleic acid C5 H10 O5 [M+H]+
1.249 Positive 192 192.02 209.03 2-(oxaloamino)benzoic acid C9 H7 NO5 [M+H-H2 O]+
1.38 Positive 288 287.91 245.88 Tetrachlorocatechol C6 H2 Cl4 O2 [M+H+CH3 CN]+
11.48 Positive 344 344.07 302.04 Quercetin C15 H10 O7 [M+H+CH3 CN]+
17.047 Positive 386 386.07 385.07 Hydroxylansoprazole C16 H14 F3 N3 O3 S [M+H]+
a
Retention time (min).

3.2.5. Toxicity bioassessment References

In order to evaluate the suitability of the effluent from the
VUV/H2 O2 process for discharging into the water bodies, the BHW
before and after treatment in the continuous-flow VUV/H2 O2 pro-
cess at the HRT of 10 min was bio-assayed by measuring the
mortality of Daphnia magna. The results showed that the values of
acute LC50 at 48 h were 43.4% and 278.2% for influent and effluent
of the VUV/H2 O2 process, respectively. The TU was then calculated
and found to be 2.3 and 0.36 for the BHW before and after the
post-treatment in the VUV/H2 O2 process, respectively. It is found
therefore that the VUV/H2 O2 process could mineralize (Fig. 7) most
of the toxic organic compounds in the BHW (Table 3) and that the
residual intermediates (Table 4) were much less toxic for aquatic
organisms. Based on the Persoone’ hazard classification system
(Persoone et al., 2003), the BHW had an acute toxicity level (class
III) whereas it distinctly decreased to the no acute toxicity (class I)
level upon treating in the VUV/H2 O2 process. The finding clearly
indicates that post-treating the BHW in the VUV/H2 O2 process
achieved the disinfection and considerable TOC reduction along
with a distinct decrease in acute toxicity, the effluent of which can
be discharged safely into water environment (Persoone et al., 2003).
4. Conclusion
The performance of VUV and UV photoreactor was evaluated
in E. coli inactivation. It was found that the E. coli inactivation
in the VUV photoreactor was three orders of magnitude greater
than that in the UVC photoreactor. In addition, the disinfection
and post-treatment of the effluent from hospital wastewater acti-
vated sludge treatment plant was treated in different processes
the UVC, VUV, UVC/H2 O2 and VUV/H2 O2 processes. The VUV/H2 O2
process attained the highest performance and complete bacterial
inactivation and detergent removal along with 93.6% TOC reduc-
tion was achieved in the process at an HRT of 10 min. Most of the
trace chemicals in the BHW was degraded and thereby the biotoxi-
city decreased markedly after treating in the VUV/H2 O2 process.
In conclusion, integrating the biological treatment such as acti-
vated sludge with the VUV/H2 O2 process as a polishing system is a
promising technique for efficient treatment and disinfection of the
hospital wastewaters.
Acknowledgments
Iran National Institute for Medical Research Development
(NIMAD), Iran, financially supported this study under Elite’s Grant
No. 965395. The authors are also grateful to Tarbiat Modares Uni-
versity, Iran for providing technical and financial support.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary material related to this article can be found, in
the online version, at doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psep.2019.04.
016.
Aguilar, S., Rosado, D., Moreno-Andrés, J., Cartuche, L., Cruz, D., Acevedo-Merino, A.,
Nebot, E., 2018. Inactivation of a wild isolated Klebsiella pneumoniae by photo-
chemical processes: UV-C, UV-C/H2 O2 and UV-C/H2 O2 /Fe3+ . Catal. Today 313,
94–99.
APHA, AWWA, WEF, 2017. Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and
Wastewater, Washington, DC, USA, 23th ed.
Arslan, A., Veli, S., Bingöl, D., 2014. Use of response surface methodology for pretreat-
ment of hospital wastewater by O3 /UV and O3 /UV/H2 O2 processes. Sep. Purif.
Technol. 132, 561–567.
Bagheri, M., Mohseni, M., 2015. A study of enhanced performance of VUV/UV pro-
cess for the degradation of micropollutants from contaminated water. J. Hazard.
Mater. 294, 1–8.
Brown, A.K., Wong, C.S., 2018. Distribution and fate of pharmaceuticals and their
metabolite conjugates in a municipal wastewater treatment plant. Water Res.
144, 774–783.
Byrne, C., Subramanian, G., Pillai, S.C., 2018. Recent advances in photocatalysis for
environmental applications. J. Environ. Chem. Eng. 6, 3531–3555.
dos Santos, A.B.K., Claro, E.M.T., Montagnolli, R.N., Cruz, J.M., Lopes, P.R.M., Bidoia,
E.D., 2017. Electrochemically assisted photocatalysis: highly efficient treatment
using thermal titanium oxides doped and non-doped electrodes for water dis-
infection. J. Environ. Manag. 204, 255–263.
EPA, 2002. Methods for Measuring the Acute Toxicity of Effluents and Receiving
Waters to Freshwater and Marine Organisms, fifth edition, EPA-821-R-02-012.
Furatian, L., Mohseni, M., 2018. Influence of chloride on the 185 nm advanced oxi-
dation process. Chemosphere 199, 263–268.
García-Muñoz, P., Pliego, G., Zazo, J.A., Munoz, M., de Pedro, Z.M., Baha-
monde, A., Casas, J.A., 2017. Treatment of hospital wastewater through the
CWPO-Photoassisted process catalyzed by ilmenite. J. Environ. Chem. Eng. 5,
4337–4343.
Gayán, E., Mañas, P., Álvarez, I., Condón, S., 2013. Mechanism of the synergistic inac-
tivation of Escherichia coli by UV-C light at mild temperatures. Appl. Environ.
Microbiol. 79, 4465–4473.
Giannakis, S., Androulaki, B., Comninellis, C., Pulgarin, C., 2018. Wastewater and
urine treatment by UVC-based advanced oxidation processes: implications from
the interactions of bacteria, viruses, and chemical contaminants. Chem. Eng. J.
343, 270–282.
Huang, W., Bianco, A., Brigante, M., Mailhot, G., 2018. UVA-UVB activation of
hydrogen peroxide and persulfate for advanced oxidation processes: efficiency,
mechanism and effect of various water constituents. J. Hazard. Mater. 347
(2018), 279–287.
Ibáñez, M., Borova, V., Boix, C., Aalizadeh, R., Bade, R., Thomaidis, N.S., Hernández,
F., 2017. UHPLC-QTOF MS screening of pharmaceuticals and their metabolites
in treated wastewater samples from Athens. J. Hazard. Mater. 323, 26–35.
Imoberdorf, G., Mohseni, M., 2011. Degradation of natural organic matter in surface
water using vacuum-UV irradiation. J. Hazard. Mater. 186, 240–246.
Kern, D.I., Schwaickhardt, R.O., Mohr, G., Lobo, E.A., Machado, Ê.L., 2013. Toxicity
and genotoxicity of hospital laundry wastewaters treated with photocatalytic
ozonation. Sci. Total Environ. 443, 566–572.
Köhler, C., Venditti, S., Igos, E., Klepiszewski, K., Benetto, E., Cornelissen, A., 2012.
Elimination of pharmaceutical residues in biologically pre-treated hospital
wastewater using advanced UV irradiation technology: a comparative assess-
ment. J. Hazard. Mater. 239–240, 70–77.
Machado, Ê.L., Kist, L.T., Schmidt, R., Hoeltz, J.M., Dalberto, D., Alcayaga, E.L.A., 2007.
Secondary hospital wastewater detoxification and disinfection by advanced oxi-
dation processes. Environ. Technol. 28, 1135–1143.
Maddigpua, P.R., Sawant, B., Wanjari, S., Goel, M.D., Vione, D., Dhodapkar, R.S., Ray-
alu, S., 2018. Carbon nanoparticles for solar disinfection of water. J. Hazard.
Mater. 343, 157–165.
Martínez-Alcalá, I., Guillén-Navarro, J.M., Fernández-López, C., 2017. Pharmaceutical
biological degradation, sorption and mass balance determination in a conven-
tional activated-sludge wastewater treatment plant from Murcia. Spain. Chem.
Eng. J. 316, 332–340.
Mierzwa, J.C., Rodrigues, R., Teixeira, A.C.S.C., 2018. UV-hydrogen peroxide pro-
cesses. In: Ameta, C., Ameta, R. (Eds.), Advanced Oxidation Processes for
Wastewater Treatment. Academic Press, pp. 13–48.
268 G. Moussavi et al. / Process Safety and Environmental Protection 126 (2019) 259–268
Miranda, A.C., Lepretti, M., Rizzo, L., Caputo, I., Vaiano, V., Sacco, O., Lopes, W.S.,
Sannino, D., 2016. Surface water disinfection by chlorination and advanced
oxidation processes: inactivation of an antibiotic resistant E. coli strain and
cytotoxicity evaluation. Sci. Total Environ. 554–555, 1–6.
Moradi, M., Moussavi, G., 2019. Enhanced treatment of tannery wastewater using the
electrocoagulation process combined with UVC/VUV photoreactor: parametric
and mechanistic evaluation. Chem. Eng. J. 358, 1038–1046.
Moussavi, G., Rezaei, M., 2017. Exploring the advanced oxidation/reduction
processes in the VUV photoreactor for dechlorination and mineralization
of trichloroacetic acid: parametric experiments, degradation pathway and
bioassessment. Chem. Eng. J. 328, 331–342.
Moussavi, G., Hossaini, H., Jafari, S.J., Farokhi, M., 2014. Comparing the efficacy of
UVC, UVC/ZnO and VUV processes for oxidation of organophosphate pesticides
in water. J. Photochem. Photobiol. A: Chem. 290, 86–93.
Moussavi, G., Pourakbar, M., Shekoohiyan, S., Satari, M., 2018a. The photochemi-
cal decomposition and detoxification of bisphenol A in the VUV/H2 O2 process:
degradation, mineralization, and cytotoxicity assessment. Chem. Eng. J. 331,
755–764.
Moussavi, G., Rezaei, M., Pourakbar, M., 2018b. Comparing VUV and VUV/Fe2+
processes for decomposition of cloxacillin antibiotic: degradation rate and path-
ways, mineralization and by-product analysis. Chem. Eng. J. 332, 140–149.
Moussavi, G., Pourakbar, M., Aghayani, E., Mahdavianpour, M., 2018c. Investigating
the aerated VUV/PS process simultaneously generating hydroxyl and sulfate rad-
icals for the oxidation of cyanide in aqueous solution and industrial wastewater.
Chem. Eng. J. 350, 673–680.
Munoz, M., Garcia-Muñoz, P., Pliego, G., de Pedro, Z.M., Zazo, J.A., Casas, J.A.,
Rodriguez, J.J., 2016. Application of intensified Fenton oxidation to the treat-
ment of hospital wastewater: kinetics, ecotoxicity and disinfection. J. Environ.
Chem. Eng. 4, 4107–4112.
Nahim-Granados, S., Sánchez Pérez, J.A., Polo-Lopez, M.I., 2018. Effective solar pro-
cesses in fresh-cut wastewater disinfection: inactivation of pathogenic E. coli
O157:H7 and Salmonella enteritidis. Catal. Today 313, 79–85.
Nakatani, N., Hashimoto, N., Shindo, H., Yamamotob, M., Kikkawa, M., Sakugawa,
H., 2007. Determination of photoformation rates and scavenging rate constants
of hydroxyl radicals in natural waters using an automatic light irradiation and
injection system. Anal. Chim. Acta 581, 260–267.
Ooi, G.T.H., Tang, K., Chhetri, R.K., Kaarsholm, K.M.S., Sundmark, K., Kragelund,
C., Litty, K., Christensen, A., Lindholst, S., Sund, C., Christensson, M., Bester,
K., Andersen, H.R., 2018. Biological removal of pharmaceuticals from hospital
wastewater in a pilot-scale staged moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) utilising
nitrifying and denitrifying processes. Bioresour. Technol. 267, 677–687.
Ouarda, Y., Tiwari, B., Azaïs, A., Vaudreuil, M.-A., Ndiaye, S.D., Drogui, P., Tyagi,
R.D., Sauvé, S., Desrosiers, M., Buelna, G., Dubé, R., 2018. Synthetic hospital
wastewater treatment by coupling submerged membrane bioreactor and elec-
trochemical advanced oxidation process: kinetic study and toxicity assessment.
Chemosphere 193, 160–169.
Persoone, G., Marsalek, B., Blinova, I., Törökne, A., Zarina, D., Manusadzianas, L.,
Nalecz-Jawecki, G., Tofan, L., Stepanova, N., Tothova, L., Kolar, B., 2003. A practi-
cal and user-friendly toxicity classification system with microbiotests for natural
waters and wastewaters. Environ. Toxicol. 18, 395–402.
Rodríguez-Chueca, J., 2018. J. Hazard. Mater., http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.
2018.04.044.
Rodríguez-Chueca, J., Silva, T., Fernandes, J.R., Lucas, M.S., Li Puma, G., Peres, J.A., Sam-
paio, A., 2017. Inactivation of pathogenic microorganisms in freshwater using
HSO− 5 /UV − A LED and HSO5 /M
− n+
/UV − A LED oxidation processes. Water Res.
123, 113–123.
Schwaickhardt, R.O., Machado, Ê.L., Lutterbeck, C.A., 2017. Combined use of VUV and
UVC photoreactors for the treatment of hospital laundry wastewaters: reduc-
tion of load parameters, detoxification and life cycle assessment of different
configurations. Sci. Total Environ. 590–591, 233–241.
Sreeja, S., Shetty, V., 2017. Photocatalytic water disinfection under solar irradiation
by Ag@TiO2 core-shell structured nanoparticles. Sol. Energy 157, 236–243.
Stefan, M.I., 2018. Advanced Oxidation Processes for Water Treatment: Fundamental
and Applications. IWA.
Wang, D., Oppenländer, T., El-Din, M.G., Bolton, J.R., 2010. Comparison of the dis-
infection effects of vacuum-UV (VUV) and UV light on Bacillus subtilis spores
in aqueous suspensions at 172, 222 and 254 nm. Photochem. Photobiol. 86,
176–181.
Wols, B.A., Harmsen, D.J.H., van Remmen, T., Beerendonk, E.F., Hofman-Caris, C.H.M.,
2015. Design aspects of UV/H2 O2 reactors. Chem. Eng. Sci. 13, 712–721.
Xia, D., He, H., Liu, H., Wang, Y., Zhang, Q., Li, Y., Lu, A., He, C., Wong, P.K., 2018.
Persulfate-mediated catalytic and photocatalytic bacterial inactivation by mag-
netic natural ilmenite. Appl. Catal. B: Environ. 238, 70–81.
Yang, Y., Pignatello, J.J., Ma, J., Mitch, W.A., 2014. Comparison of halide impacts on
the efficiency of contaminant degradation by sulfate and hydroxyl radical-based
advanced oxidation processes (AOPs). Environ. Sci. Technol. 48, 2344–2351.
Yoon, Y., Chung, H.J., Di, D.Y.W., Dodd, M.C., Hur, H.-G., Lee, Y., 2017. Inactivation effi-
ciency of plasmid-encoded antibiotic resistance genes during water treatment
with chlorine, UV, and UV/H2 O2 . Water Res. 123, 783–793.
Zheng, H.-S., Guo, W.-Q., Wu, Q.-L., Ren, N.-Q., Chang, J.-S., 2018. Electro-peroxone
pretreatment for enhanced simulated hospital wastewater treatment and
antibiotic resistance genes reduction. Environ. Int. 115, 70–78.
Zhou, S., Huang, S., Li, X., Angelidaki, I., Zhang, Y., 2018. Microbial electrolytic dis-
infection process for highly efficient Escherichia coli inactivation. Chem. Eng. J.
342, 220–227.