Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2009OH119B

Destruction of Cyanobacterial Toxins in Water with Germicidal UV-254 nm-based Homogeneous and Solar-based Heterogeneous Advanced Oxidation Processes

Institute: Ohio
Year Established: 2009 Start Date: 2009-03-01 End Date: 2010-11-30
Total Federal Funds: $25,000 Total Non-Federal Funds: $51,149

Principal Investigators: Dionysios Dionysiou, Dionysios Dionysiou

Abstract: The spatial and temporal incident of cyanobacteria harmful algal blooms (Cyano-HABs) in freshwater estuaries is increasing, particularly in Ohio (i.e., Lake Erie and Ohio River) and has become a growing concern among the scientific community. The presence of high concentrations of harmful cyanotoxins from Cyano-HABs in drinking water supplies is a serious threat to human and environmental health. One of the major challenges in assessing the associated health risks is to better understand the environmental/photochemical fate of these toxins. Extensive research has been carried out and tremendous resources are spent on the monitoring and removal of anthropogenic pollutants from ground and drinking water, but relatively little attention has been given to monitoring and the treatment of waters contaminated with cyanotoxins. There is an urgent need to develop and identify effective water treatment technologies to eliminate cyanotoxins from drinking water. In this study we proposed to investigate the (1) mechanisms of the photo-transformation of cyanotoxins in water (2) explore solar-driven catalytic systems for the destruction of cyanotoxins in water; and (3) investigate the fate of cyanotoxins under germicidal action UV (254 nm) (low pressure lamps) or broader spectrum (medium pressure lamps) at various levels of UV fluence in consideration with the presence of UV disinfection systems in several drinking water treatment plants. The results will provide a fundamental understanding of the photochemical fate of the target cyanotoxins. Such investigations are critical to the development of cost-efficient technologies for treatment of water contaminated with cyanotoxins. The results of this work will provide the data required for (i) a better understanding of the interactions of selected cyanotoxins with light and their photochemical fate in freshwater estuaries, (ii) evaluating the role of novel catalytic materials to destroy cyanotoxins in water as an approach to develop engineering technologies utilizing solar radiation as a renewable source of light, and (iii) determining the magnitude of photochemical transformation of cyanotoxins under specific range of UV radiation fluence in consideration with the UV fluence applied in typical UV disinfection treatment units or required to inactivate specific pathogenic microorganisms.