Isotope labeling for mechanistic understanding of ozonation and post-treatment of organic micropollutants in wastewater

The use of ozone to reduce the discharge of pharmaceuticals and other organic micropollutants via municipal wastewater is receiving increasing attention.

Ozonation of wastewater could, however, lead to the formation of undesirable byproducts and ozone transformation products (OTPs). Subsequent treatment for the ozonated water is therefore recommended.

However, current knowledge on the formation of OTPs during ozonation and their removal in various post-treatments is often limited, due to the analytical challenges of measuring previously unknown compounds with low mass and high polarity in wastewater.

With 14C-labeling it is deemed possible to circumvent some of these challenges by following the radiolabeled carbon.The aim of this project is to use a comprehensive set of radiolabeled micropollutants to follow the formation of 14CO2 and 14C-labeled OTPs, to establish a structural based  mineralization scheme for key micropollutant moieties, and to explore degradation and adsorption of 14C-labeled ozone transformation products in various post-treatments.

Additional investigations will also be performed to provide theoretical explanations to observed ozonation differences between wastewaters by relating main water characteristics to the ozone and hydroxyl radical exposures.