Performance comparison of commercial TiO2: separation and reuse for bacterial photo-inactivation and emerging pollutants photo-degradation

This research aims to compare the disinfection and degradation effectiveness in water of a commercial suspension of nano-TiO2 (TiO(2)Levenger) with the standard TiO(2)Degussa P25. Photo-inactivation and photo-degradation experiments were conducted with UVA-vis light. Concerning the disinfection, the effects of TiO2 dose (0-2 g/l), water matrix, bacterium type (Gram-positive or Gram-negative), and bacterial regrowth after the photo-treatments were studied for each catalyst. The experimental results show that Enterococcus sp. (Gram-positive) was more resistant to the photo-treatments than Escherichia coli (Gram-negative) for both catalyst; however, postirradiation trends showed similar behavior for both bacteria, favoring regrowth for short-treated cells and decay for longer-treated ones. Caffeine was selected as a model substance of pharmaceuticals and personal care products. In terms of caffeine removal, the effects of TiO2 dose (0-2 g/l) and water matrix were analyzed. Besides, the comparison between mechanical coagulation-flocculation-decantation and simple decantation of TiO2 was carried out. The results show that simple decantation allowed the recovery of 97.5% of TiO2 Degussa P25 and TiO2 Levenger within 1 day of simple decantation, while applying the proposed mechanical coagulation-flocculation decantation 99.7% of recovery of both catalysts was achieved in 2 hours. Finally, the subsequent reuse of both catalysts was proved with little loss of efficiency in terms of photo-disinfection during the four cycles. Nevertheless, the standard TiO2 Degussa P25 photo-degradation efficiency of caffeine decreases considerably as compared to commercial suspension of TiO2 Levenger concerning the reutilization.