Integrated photocatalytic-biological treatment of triazine-containing pollutants

The degradation of triazine-containing pollutants including simazine, Irgarol^® 1051 and Reactive Brilliant Red K-2G (K-2G) by photocatalytic treatment was investigated. The effects of titanium dioxide (TiO₂) concentration, initial pH of reaction mixture, irradiation time and ultraviolet (UV) intensity on photocatalytic treatment efficiency were examined. Complete decolorization of K-2G was observed at 60 min photodegradation while only 15 min were required to completely degrade simazine and Irgarol^® 1051 under respective optimized conditions. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and ion chromatography (IC) were employed to identify the photocatalytic degradation intermediates and products. Dealkylated intermediates of simazine, deisopropylatrazine and deethyldeisopropylatrazine, and Irgarol^® 1051 were detected by GC/MS in the initial phase of degradation. Complete mineralization could not be achieved for all triazine-containing pollutants even after prolonged (>72 h) UV irradiation due to the presence of a photocatalysis-resistant end product, cyanuric acid (CA). The toxicities of different compounds before and after photocatalytic treatment were also monitored by three bioassays. To further treat the photocatalysis-resistant end product, a CA-degrading bacterium was isolated from polluted marine sediment and further identified as Klebsiella pneumoniae by comparing the substrate utilization pattern (Biolog™ microplate), fatty acid composition and 16S rRNA gene sequencing. K. pneumoniae efficiently utilized CA from 1 to 2000 mg/L as a good nitrogen source and complete mineralization of CA was observed within 24 h of incubation. This study demonstrates that the biodegradability of triazine-containing pollutants was significantly improved by the photocatalytic pre-treatment, and this proposed photocatalytic-biological integrated system can effectively treat various classes of triazine-containing pollutants.