UV/Chlorine AOP in Potable Reuse: Assessment of applicability, operational issues, and potential by-products

Potable water reuse is increasingly recognised as an important water management strategy for future Australian and international cities. In order to produce the highest quality drinking water from municipal wastewater sources, advanced treatment by ultraviolet radiation advanced oxidation processes (UV-AOPs) is a prominent feature of some of the most sophisticated potable reuse projects. Validation and monitoring of the UV aspects of UV-AOPs are well established and effective. However, validation of the AOP aspects (i.e., the production of oxidative radical species) is poorly developed and ongoing performance monitoring methods are currently impractical for most projects. This is a significant gap in advanced water treatment process reliability for chemical contaminant degradation. In terms of full-scale operational potable reuse projects, high intensity UV and UV-peroxide are the only fully established processes. However, there is rapidly growing interest in an alternative catalytical process, UV-chlorine. There is one full-scale operational UV-chlorine AOP plant in California, but currently no experience with this technology in Australia.

This project will aim to develop a framework for the validation and ongoing performance monitoring of the advanced oxidation aspects of UV-chlorine employed for potable water reuse. Researchers will systematically explore relationships between monitorable UV-chlorine operational conditions and treatment performance outcomes. The development of this framework will allow for ongoing practical and cost-effective real-time performance monitoring, satisfying a key requirement of Australian water quality public health regulators when assessing and licencing proposed potable water reuse projects.