Phototransformation of Acesulfame K in surface waters: Comparison of two techniques for the measurement of the second-order rate constants of indirect photodegradation, and modelling of photoreaction kinetics

Photochemical Implications of Changes in the Spectral Properties of Chromophoric Dissolved Organic Matter: A Model Assessment for Surface Waters

Chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) is the main sunlight absorber in surface waters and a very important photosensitiser towards the generation of photochemically produced reactive intermediates (PPRIs), which take part in pollutant degradation. The absorption spectrum of CDOM (ACDOM(λ), unitless) can be described by an exponential function that decays with increasing wavelength: ACDOM(λ) = 100 d DOC Ao e− Sλ, where d [m] is water depth, DOC [mgC L−1] is dissolved organic carbon, Ao [L mgC−1 cm−1] is a pre-exponential factor, and S [nm−1] is the spectral slope. Sunlight absorption by CDOM is higher when Ao and DOC are higher and S is lower, and vice versa. By the use of models, here we investigate the impact of changes in CDOM spectral parameters (Ao and S) on the steady-state concentrations of three PPRIs: the hydroxyl radical (•OH), the carbonate radical (CO3•−), and CDOM excited triplet states (3CDOM*). A first finding is that variations in both Ao and S have impacts comparable to DOC variations on the photochemistry of CDOM, when reasonable parameter values are considered. Therefore, natural variability of the spectral parameters or their modifications cannot be neglected. In the natural environment, spectral parameters could, for instance, change because of photobleaching (prolonged exposure of CDOM to sunlight, which decreases Ao and increases S) or of the complex and still poorly predictable effects of climate change. A second finding is that, while the steady-state [3CDOM*] would increase with increasing ACDOM (increasing Ao, decreasing S), the effect of spectral parameters on [•OH] and [CO3•−] depends on the relative roles of CDOM vs. NO3− and NO2− as photochemical •OH sources.

Tradeoff between micropollutant abatement and bromate formation during ozonation of concentrates from nanofiltration and reverse osmosis processes

Water treatment with nanofiltration (NF) or reverse osmosis (RO) membranes results in a purified permeate and a retentate, where solutes are concentrated and have to be properly managed and discharged. To date, little is known on how the selection of a semi-permeable dense membrane impacts the dissolved organic matter in the concentrate and what the consequences are for micropollutant (MP) abatement and bromate formation during concentrate treatment with ozone. Laboratory ozonation experiments were performed with standardized concentrates produced by three membranes (two NFs and one low-pressure reverse osmosis (LPRO) membrane) from three water sources (two river waters and one lake water). The concentrates were standardized by adjustment of pH and concentrations of dissolved organic carbon, total inorganic carbon, selected micropollutants (MP) with a low to high ozone reactivity and bromide to exclude factors which are known to impact ozonation. NF membranes had a lower retention of bromide and MPs than the LPRO membrane, and if the permeate quality of the NF membrane meets the requirements, the selection of this membrane type is beneficial due to the lower bromate formation risks upon concentrate ozonation. The bromate formation was typically higher in standardized concentrates of LPRO than of NF membranes, but the tradeoff between MP abatement and bromate formation upon ozonation of the standardized concentrates was not affected by the membrane type. Furthermore, there was no difference for the different source waters. Overall, ozonation of concentrates is only feasible for abatement of MPs with a high to moderate ozone reactivity with limited bromate formation. Differences in the DOM composition between NF and LPRO membrane concentrates are less relevant than retention of MPs and bromide by the membrane and the required ozone dose to meet a treatment target.

Acesulfame K Photodegradation over Nitrogen-Doped TiO2

Acesulfame K is a zero-calorie alternative to sugar used worldwide. There is contradictory information on the toxicity of the compound, but its accumulation in the aquatic environment is undeniable. In this study, one-pot sol-gel synthesis was used to obtain nitrogen-doped TiO2 photocatalysts. Doping up to 6.29 wt % of nitrogen caused an increase in the surface area of the catalysts (48.55–58.23 m2∙g−1) and a reduction of the pHPZC value (5.72–5.05). Acesulfame K photodegradation was tested at the initial concentration of 20–100 ppm and the catalyst concentration at the level of 1 g∙L−1. Compared to the pure anatase, 4.83–6.29 wt % nitrogen-doped TiO2 showed an effective photodegradation of Acesulfame K. Ninety percent molecule removal was obtained after ~100 min, ~90 min, and ~80 min for initial concentrations of 20 ppm, 50 ppm, and 100 ppm, respectively. The increased activity of the catalysts is due to the modification of the TiO2 lattice structure and probably the limitation of the photogenerated electron/hole charge carrier recombination. It was shown that the electrostatic interactions between Acesulfame K and the catalyst surface play an important role in the photodegradation efficiency.

The modelling of Surface-Water photoreactions made easier: introducing the concept of 'equivalent monochromatic wavelengths'

The recent development of successful model approaches that predict the photochemical behaviour of surface waters has greatly aided in the understanding of how water environments work and will likely work in the future, from a photochemical point of view. However, the inherent multi-wavelength (polychromatic) nature of environmental photochemistry causes the relevant mathematics to be quite complex, which discourages many scientists to carry out photochemical calculations. To greatly simplify model mathematics, this paper proposes a new approach that is based on a monochromatic approximation to the polychromatic problem, introducing the concept of what is here defined as equivalent monochromatic wavelengths (EMWs). The EMW is the single wavelength that reproduces the behaviour of the polychromatic system, using a monochromatic (Lambert-Beer based) equation. The EMW approach largely simplifies calculations, getting rid of integrals and allowing for much more straightforward and manageable equations to be obtained. In particular, this work shows that: (i) the EMW approach, although approximated, entails a negligible loss in accuracy compared to the exact polychromatic treatment of photochemical reactions; (ii) in the case of direct photolysis, the quantum yield is to be replaced by an apparent photon efficiency that is not bound to be < 1 (quantum yields can actually be > 1 for chain reactions and few other cases, but this is not the point here); (iii) the monochromatic Lambert-Beer equations work in most cases once the EMW is identified, with the present exception of sunlight absorption by chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM). The latter spans a very wide wavelength range (from 300 to at least 600 nm), which makes a single-wavelength treatment more difficult. However, a relatively small modification to the monochromatic Lambert-Beer equation allows for successfully using the EMW approach, in the case of CDOM as well. The near-perfect coincidence between polychromatic and EMW-based predictions of photodegradation kinetics is here shown for the pollutants atrazine, bentazone, carbamazepine, diclofenac, diuron and ibuprofen. Extension to additional compounds requires translation of the traditional, polychromatic language into the EMW one. Hopefully, this contribution will introduce a new paradigm in the mathematical description of photochemical reactions in environmental waters. It could also become a new and simple way to treat multi-wavelength systems in general photochemistry studies, thereby completely changing the way multi-wavelength problems are dealt with.

Variable persistence of artificial sweeteners during wastewater treatment: Implications for future use as tracers

For more than a decade the artificial sweeteners acesulfame (ACE) and sucralose (SUC) have been applied as tracers of the input of wastewater to environmental waters. Recently concerns have been raised that degradation of ACE during treatment may hinder or restrict its use as a wastewater tracer. In this study the value of ACE and SUC as tracers was reassessed based on samples of wastewater at 12 municipal wastewater treatment (MWWT) plants and from 7 septic systems and associated septic plumes in groundwater. The results indicated stability of SUC during MWWT at most plants, and variable removal of both sweeteners during some MWWT and in the septic wastewater systems. However, the residual concentrations of ACE and SUC in municipal effluent and in septic plumes indicate that both sweeteners remain valuable wastewater tracers. The mass ratio SUC/ACE was found to be a useful parameter for examining the relative persistence of these sweeteners.

Possible Effect of Climate Change on Surface-Water Photochemistry: A Model Assessment of the Impact of Browning on the Photodegradation of Pollutants in Lakes during Summer Stratification. Epilimnion vs. Whole-Lake Phototransformation

Water browning in lakes (progressive increase of the content of chromophoric dissolved organic matter, CDOM) has the potential to deeply alter the photodegradation kinetics of pollutants during summer stratification. Browning, which takes place as a consequence of climate change in several Nordic environments, causes the thermocline to be shallower, because higher CDOM decreases the penetration of sunlight inside the water column. Using a model approach, it is shown in this paper that pollutants occurring in the epilimnion would be affected differently depending on their main photodegradation pathway(s): almost no change for the direct photolysis, slight decrease in the degradation kinetics by the hydroxyl radicals (^•OH, but the resulting degradation would be too slow for the process to be effective during summer stratification), considerable decrease for the carbonate radicals (CO₃^•−), increase for the excited triplet states of CDOM (³CDOM*) and singlet oxygen (¹O₂). Because it is difficult to find compounds that are highly reactive with CO₃^•− and poorly reactive with ³CDOM*, the degradation rate constant of many phenols and anilines would show a minimum with increasing dissolved organic carbon (DOC), because of the combination of decreasing CO₃^•− and increasing ³CDOM* photodegradation. In contrast, overall photodegradation would always be inhibited by browning when the whole water column (epilimnion + hypolimnion) is considered, either because of slower degradation kinetics in the whole water volume, or even at unchanged overall kinetics, because of unbalanced distribution of photoreactivity within the water column.

A Review of the Environmental Fate and Effects of Acesulfame-Potassium

The use of low and no calorie sweeteners (LNCSs) has increased substantially the past several decades. Their high solubility in water, low absorption to soils, and reliable analytical methods facilitate their detection in wastewater and surface waters. Low and no calorie sweeteners are widely used in food and beverage products around the world, have been approved as food additives, and are considered safe for human consumption by the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) and other regulatory authorities. Concerns have been raised, however, regarding their growing presence and potential aquatic toxicity. Recent studies have provided new empirical environmental monitoring, environmental fate, and ecotoxicity on acesulfame potassium (ACE-K). Acesulfame potassium is an important high-production LNCS, widely detected in the environment and generally reported to be environmentally persistent. Acesulfame-potassium was selected for this environmental fate and effects review to determine its comparative risk to aquatic organisms. The biodegradation of ACE-K is predicted to be low, based on available quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models, and this has been confirmed by several investigations, mostly published prior to 2014. More recently, there appears to be an interesting paradigm shift with several reports of the enhanced ability of wastewater treatment plants to biodegrade ACE-K. Some studies report that ACE-K can be photodegraded into potentially toxic breakdown products, whereas other data indicate that this may not be the case. A robust set of acute and chronic ecotoxicity studies in fish, invertebrates, and freshwater plants provided critical data on ACE-K's aquatic toxicity. Acesulfame-potassium concentrations in wastewater and surface water are generally in the lower parts per billion (ppb) range, whereas concentrations in sludge and groundwater are much lower (parts per trillion [ppt]). This preliminary environmental risk assessment establishes that ACE-K has high margins of safety (MOSs) and presents a negligible risk to the aquatic environment based on a collation of extensive ACE-K environmental monitoring, conservative predicted environmental concentration (PEC) and predicted no-effect concentration (PNEC) estimates, and prudent probabilistic exposure modeling. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2020;16:421-437. © 2020 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).

A Critical View of the Application of the APEX Software (Aqueous Photochemistry of Environmentally-Occurring Xenobiotics) to Predict Photoreaction Kinetics in Surface Freshwaters

The APEX (aqueous photochemistry of environmentally occurring xenobiotics) software computes the phototransformation kinetics of compounds that occur in sunlit surface waters. It is free software based on Octave, and was originally released in 2014. Since then, APEX has proven to be a remarkably flexible platform, allowing for the addressing of several environmental problems. However, considering APEX as a stand-alone software is not conducive to exploiting its full potentialities. Rather, it is part of a whole ecosystem that encompasses both the software and the laboratory protocols that allow for the measurement of substrate photoreactivity parameters. Coherently with this viewpoint, the present paper shows both how to use APEX, and how to experimentally derive or approximately assess the needed input data. Attention is also given to some issues that might provide obstacles to users, including the extension of APEX beyond the simple systems for which it was initially conceived. In particular, we show how to use APEX to deal with compounds that undergo acid–base equilibria, and with the photochemistry of systems such as stratified lakes, lakes undergoing evaporation, and rivers. Hopefully, this work will provide a reference for the smooth use of one of the most powerful instruments for the modeling of photochemical processes in freshwater environments. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Kinetic modeling of lag times during photo-induced inactivation of E. coli in sunlit surface waters: Unraveling the pathways of exogenous action

This work presents a kinetic analysis of the exogenous photo-induced disinfection of E. coli in natural waters. Herein, the inactivation of bacteria by light and photo-generated transient species, i.e., hydroxyl radical (HO^•), excited triplet states of organic matter (³CDOM*) and singlet oxygen (¹O₂), was studied. It was found that the exogenous disinfection of E. coli proceeds through a lag time, followed by an exponential phase triggered by photo-generated HO^•, ¹O₂ and ³CDOM*. Also, we report that the concentration increased of transient species (and especially HO^•) precursors decreased the lag times of bacteria inactivation. Due to the limitations of the competition kinetics methodology to include the lag phase, an alternative strategy to study the interaction between E. coli and photo-generated transient species was proposed, considering the log-linear pseudo-first order rate constants and lag-times. On this basis and by using APEX software, a full kinetic analysis of exogenous bacterial inactivation, taking into account both lag-time and exponential decay, was developed. This approach provided insights into the conditions that could make exogenous inactivation competitive with the endogenous process for the E. coli inactivation in natural sunlit waters. Hence, this research contributes to the understanding of fundamental kinetic aspects of photoinduced bacterial inactivation, which is the basis for light-assisted processes such as the solar disinfection (SODIS).

Photochemistry of Surface Fresh Waters in the Framework of Climate Change

Photochemical processes taking place in surface fresh waters play an important role in the transformation of biorecalcitrant pollutants and some natural compounds and in the inactivation of microorganisms. Such processes are divided into direct photolysis, where a molecule is transformed following sunlight absorption, and indirect photochemistry, where naturally occurring photosensitizers absorb sunlight and produce a range of transient species that can transform dissolved molecules (or inactivate microorganisms). Photochemistry is usually favored in thoroughly illuminated shallow waters, while the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) acts as a switch between different photochemical pathways (direct photolysis, and indirect photochemistry triggered by different transient species). Various phenomena connected with climate change (water browning, changing precipitations) may affect water DOC and water depth, with implications for the kinetics of photoreactions and the associated transformation pathways. The latter are important because they often produce peculiar intermediates, with particular health and environmental impacts. Further climate-induced effects with photochemical implications are shorter ice-cover seasons and enhanced duration of summer stratification in lakes, as well as changes in the flow velocity of rivers that affect the photodegradation time scale. This contribution aims at showing how the different climate-related phenomena can affect photoreactions and which approaches can be followed to quantitatively describe these variations.

Photoinduced disinfection in sunlit natural waters: Measurement of the second order inactivation rate constants between E. coli and photogenerated transient species

This work uncovers the implications of the estimation of exogenous inactivation rates for E. coli after the initial lag phase, and presents a strategy for the determination of the second-order inactivation rate constants (k^2nd) of these bacteria with relevant transient species promoted by solar light in natural waters. For this purpose, specific precursors were considered (nitrate ion, rose bengal, anthraquinone-2-sulfonate) as well as the respective photo-generated transient species (i.e., hydroxyl radical (•OH), singlet oxygen (¹O₂) and triplet excited states). Under these conditions and by using suitable reference compounds (acesulfame K and 2,4,6-trimethylphenol in different series of experiments), the k^2nd values were obtained after developing a proper competition kinetics methodology. The k^2nd values were (2.5 ± 0.9) × 10¹¹, (3.8 ± 1.6) × 10⁷ and (1.8 ± 0.7) × 10¹⁰ M^-1 s^-1 for the inactivation of E. coli by •OH, ¹O₂ and the triplet state of anthraquinone-2-sulfonate (³AQ2S*), respectively. The measurement of a reaction rate constant that is higher than the diffusion-control limit for small molecules in aqueous solution implies that bacteria behave differently from molecules, e.g., because of the large size difference between bacteria and the transients. The obtained k^2nd values were used for the modeling of the bacteria inactivation kinetics in outdoor systems (both water bodies and SODIS bottles), limited to the exponential decay phase that follows the initial lag time. Afterwards, the role of dissolved organic matter (DOM) as precursor of transient species for bacterial elimination was systematically studied. The interaction of different sunlight wavelength regions (UVB, UV-A, blue, green and yellow light) with Suwannee river (SW) and Nordic Lake organic matter (ND) was tested, and the photoinduced disinfection exerted by DOM isolates (SW DOM, Suwannee River Humic Acid, Suwannee River Fulvic Acid or Pony Lake Fulvic Acid) was compared. It was not possible to achieve a complete differentiation of the individual contributions of DOM triplet states (³DOM*) and ¹O₂ to bacterial inactivation. However, the application of competition kinetics to E. coli under solar irradiation in the presence of SW led to a k^2nd value of (2.17 ± 0.40) × 10¹⁰ M^-1 s^-1, which is very near the value for inactivation by ³AQ2S* and suggests that the latter behaved very similar to SW-³DOM* and was a good ³DOM* proxy in the present case. The determination of the second-order inactivation rate constants of E. coli with •OH, ³DOM* and ¹O₂ represents a significant progress in the understanding of the external inactivation pathways of bacteria. It also allows predicting that, after the lag phase, ¹O₂ would contribute to photoinactivation to a far lesser extent than •OH and ³DOM*.