Julie Mendret

Study of photocatalytic degradation of tributyltin, dibutylin and monobutyltin in water and marine sediments

This study reports on the first assessment of the treatment of sediments contaminated by organotin compounds using heterogeneous photocatalysis. Photocatalysis of organotins in water was carried out under realistic concentration conditions (μgL(-1)). Degradation compounds were analyzed by GC-ICP-MS; a quasi-complete degradation of tributyltin (TBT) in water (99.8%) was achieved after 30min of photocatalytic treatment. The degradation by photolysis was about (10%) in the same conditions. For the first time decontamination of highly polluted marine sediments (certified reference material and harbor sediments) by photocatalysis proves that the use of UV and the production of hydroxyl radicals are an efficient way to treat organotins adsorbed onto marine sediment despite the complexity of the matrix. In sediment, TBT degradation yield ranged from 32% to 37% after only 2h of irradiation (TiO2-UV) and the by-products: dibutyltin (DBT) and monobutyltin (MBT) were degraded very rapidly in comparison with TBT. It was shown that during photocatalysis of organotins in sediments, the hydroxyl radical attack and photolysis are the two ways for the degradation of adsorbed TBT.

Evidence of solute-solute interactions and cake enhanced concentration polarization during removal of pharmaceuticals from urban wastewater by nanofiltration.

The objective of this paper is to help understanding the distinctive influence of the matrix and of the flux decline (e.g. through the cake enhanced concentration polarization (CECP) phenomenon) on the removal mechanisms of four pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) from wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent by nanofiltration (NF). PhACs which are commonly encountered in secondary treated effluent were spiked in various matrix (real and synthetic) to investigate the separate and synergetic effects of the organic and ionic environment on PhACs rejection by two commercial membranes (NF-90 and NF-270). With pure water, rejection of NF membranes is dependent on the type of PhACs and of the permeate flux variations. Then, it appeared that the rejection of PhACs by NF-90 was poorly influenced by the type of compounds, because of the prevalence of steric mechanisms, but rather influenced by permeate flux variations and thus to fouling. For this tight NF membrane, CECP impacts PhACs rejection at the start of filtration while after a dense cake is formed, it became enhanced. On the contrary, rejections of PhACs by the NF-270 were enhanced during the filtration of the real wastewater in comparison with spiked pure water. It appeared that for loose-NF membranes, PhACs rejection is mainly governed by solute-solute interactions (EfOM-compound association) or electrostatic membrane-solute interactions. Finally, it seems that calcium concentration of the effluent is a critical parameter for the rejection of PhACs as it alters both the availability of sites for PhACs association and the fouling layer density. Rejections of the NF-270 were negatively impacted in the presence of Ca2+. Such a study has practical implications for further understanding of the fate of trace organic compounds during nanofiltration of wastewater for reuse applications.

Influence of volumetric reduction factor during ozonation of nanofiltration concentrates for wastewater reuse

Global population growth induces increased threat on drinking water resources. One way to address this environmental issue is to reuse water from wastewater treatment plant. The presence of pathogenic microorganisms and potentially toxic organic micropollutants does not allow a direct reuse of urban effluents. Membrane processes such reverse osmosis (RO) or nanofiltration (NF) can be considered to effectively eliminate these pollutants. The integration of membrane processes involves the production of concentrated retentates which require being disposed. To date, no treatment is set up to manage safely this pollution. This work focuses on the application of ozonation for the treatment of NF retentates in the framework of the wastewater reuse. Ozonation is a powerful oxidation process able to react and degrade a wide range of organic pollutants. Four pharmaceutical micropollutants were selected as target molecules: acetaminophen, carbamazepine, atenolol and diatrozic acid. This study highlighted that NF represents a viable alternative to the commonly used RO process ensuring high retention at much lower operating costs. Ozonation appears to be effective to degrade the most reactive pollutants toward molecular ozone but is limited for the reduction of refractory ozone pollutants due to the inhibition of the radical chain by the high content of organic matter in the retentates. The ozonation process appears to be a promising NF retentate treatment, but additional treatments after ozonation are required to lead to a zero liquid discharge treatment scheme.

Ozonation as a pretreatment process for nanofiltration brines: Monitoring of transformation products and toxicity evaluation

Considerable interest has been given to using nanofiltration (NF) in lieu of reverse osmosis for water reclamation schemes due to lower energy consumption, higher flux rates while ensuring good micropollutants rejection. The application NF results in the generation of a large concentrated waste stream. Treatment of the concentrate is a major hurdle for the implementation of membrane technologies since the concentrate is usually unusable due to a large pollutants content. This work focuses on the application of ozonation as pretreatment of urban NF concentrates, the generation of transformation products and their relative toxicity. Three pharmaceutical micropollutants largely encountered in water cycle were selected as target molecules: acetaminophen, carbamazepine and atenolol. Through accurate-mass Q-TOF LC-MS/MS analyses, more than twenty ozonation products were detected, structure proposals and formation pathways were elaborated. Attempts were made to understand the correlation between the transformation products and acute toxicity on Vibrio fischeri strain. It is the first time that an integrated study reported on the ozonation of pharmaceuticals in urban membrane concentrates, in terms of transformation products, kinetics, degradation mechanisms, as well as toxicity assessment.

Particle deposit formation during filtration characterisation using ultrasonic waves

Membranes filtration processes are widely used because of their ability to remove particles, colloidal species and micro‐organisms from different liquids feeds. However an inherent process limitation is the membrane fouling due to deposition of suspended matter during filtration. Therefore the understanding of formation and transport properties of particle deposit responsible for membrane fouling is a necessary step to optimize membrane processes. These deposits are non homogeneous, highly porous and very thin (less than 500 μm). Thus, it is necessary to obtain local information in order to analyze and model the basic mechanisms involved in deposit formation and then to further predict process operation. As local parameters such as cake thickness and porosity are hardly reachable with conventional techniques, we propose in this paper the use of an ultrasonic echographic method. In a first step this method is validated on deposits of small glass balls. We show that the porosity and thickness of the deposit...