Chlorination and UV illumination are being widely applied to inactivate a number of pathogenic microbials in the environment. Here, we evaluated the inactivation efficiency of individual and combined treatments of chlorination and UV under various aqueous conditions. UV dosage was required higher in waste water than in phosphate buffer to achieve the similar disinfecting efficiency. Free chlorine generated by electrolysis of waste water was abundant enough to inactivate microbials. Based on these, hybrid system composed of sequential treatment of electrolysis-mediated chlorination and UV treatment was developed under waste water conditions. Compared to individual treatments, hybrid system inactivated bacteria (i.e., E. coli and S. typhimurium) and viruses (i.e., MS-2 bacteriophage, rotavirus, and norovirus) more efficiently. The hybrid system also mitigated the photo re-pair of UV-driven DNA damages of target bacteria. The combined results suggested the hybrid system would achieve high inactivation efficiency and safety on various pathogenic microbials in wastewater.

The UV/chlorine process is a UV-based advanced oxidation process for removing various organic pollutants in water. The process is becoming increasingly popular because of its effectiveness in practice. It is important to the safe and efficient operation of a UV/chlorine process that the optimal operating conditions for both target removal objective and saving energy are determined. Treatment efficiency of target compounds in UV/chlorine process was mainly affected by pH and scavenging factor. In this study, kinetic based mathematical model considering water characteristics and electrical energy dose calculations model was developed to predict of treatment efficiency and optimal operating conditions. The model equation was validated for the UV/chlorine process at the laboratory scale and in pilot tests at water treatment plants.