In-reservoir destruction of Blue-Green Algae and their toxins

水库内蓝绿藻及其毒素的破坏

• 批准号: EP/P029280/1
• 负责人: Linda Lawton
• 金额: $ 163.29万
• 依托单位: Robert Gordon University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2017 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FP029280%2F1
• 关键词: reservoir; destruction; Blue; Green; Algae

One of the greatest global challenges currently facing human-kind is access to reliable safe clean drinking water. This is particularly acute in developing countries where human activities often adversely impact water quality. While the earth is known as the blue planet with 71% of its surface covered in water, nearly all of this is seawater and not suitable for human consumption or is utilised in industrial and agricultural processes. Only a tiny proportion of the earth's water is freshwater (about 3%) and of this less than 1% is available for use, since much of the remainder is frozen at the poles or in glaciers. Water levels and quality in drinking water reservoirs across the globe are seriously depleted with the United Nation predicting that 1.8 billion people will suffer serious recurrent water shortages by 2025 and two thirds of the population living in areas of water stress.Of the water that remains in these depleted reservoirs, nutrient (nitrate and phosphate) levels from agriculture, industry and domestic waste are found to be high resulting in the mass growth of blue-green algal blooms along with the production and release of dangerous toxins. These toxins can cause acute and chronic symptoms in humans and animals resulting in ill-health, fatalities and cancers. When present in high numbers traditional water treatment often fails to eliminate the blue-green algal cells resulting in human exposure. Furthermore, the toxins they produce are also very stable during treatment allowing them to pass unaltered into drinking water. Innovative water treatment to eliminate these problems which uses light and a simple catalyst (TiO2 photocatalysis) has been pioneered by Professor Linda Lawton (Environmental Microbiologist - RGU) and Professor Peter Robertson (Chemical Engineer - QUB). We have successfully demonstrated the rapid and effective removal of 4 out of the 6 classes of toxins (evidence suggests the remaining 2 classes, saxitoxins & BNAA, will be easily destroyed as they are more simple chemical structures). Furthermore, we have also shown that the same treatment is effective against harmful microbes in water.We have extensively evaluated this exciting technology both in the laboratory and on a pilot scale with considerable interest from water utilities in seeing the full implementation within the provision of drinking water. One limiting factor has been developing a simple strategy to expose and illuminate catalyst in contact with water while ensuring that the catalyst can be readily removed. The most efficient destruction has been found for nano-particulate catalysts which cannot easily be removed from water. We aim to transform the approach to dealing with blue-green algal contamination of reservoirs by developing and testing exciting new photocatalytic treatment pods which are continually powered by integrated, floating solar panels which drive low energy LEDs. Professor John Irvine (Electrochemist - St Andrews) will bring his world leading expertise in catalyst modification and characterisation along with electro-optimisation. Dr Christine Edwards (Biotechnologist - RGU) along with Professor Lawton have led the field in the production and detection of cyanotoxins and we will collaborate with leading scientists in Brazil where reservoirs are currently extremely depleted and suffering from significant blue-green algal blooms and their associated toxins. This collaboration will allow us to test the in-reservoir deployment of our novel treatment system in water bodies which are consistently contaminated with blue-green algae and in an environment with excellent solar irradiation with which to drive the very low running cost treatment.On completion of this research we will launch a fully scalable in-reservoir water treatment system which will be transferable to any developing or developed country to eliminate hazardous blue-green algal blooms, other pathogens and a wide range of toxic pollutants.

人类目前面临的最大全球挑战之一是获得可靠、安全、清洁的饮用水。这在发展中国家尤为严重，因为人类活动往往对水质产生不利影响。虽然地球被称为蓝色星球，其71%的表面被水覆盖，但几乎所有这些都是海水，不适合人类消费或用于工业和农业过程。地球上只有一小部分水是淡水（约3%），其中只有不到1%可供使用，因为其余的大部分都冻结在两极或冰川中。地球仪饮用水水库的水位和水质严重枯竭，联合国预测，到2025年，18亿人将遭受严重的经常性缺水，三分之二的人口生活在水资源紧张的地区。在这些枯竭的水库中剩余的水中，营养物质和营养物质是最重要的。农业、工业和家庭废物中的硝酸盐和磷酸盐含量很高，导致蓝绿藻大量繁殖，沿着危险毒素的产生和释放。这些毒素可引起人类和动物的急性和慢性症状，导致健康不良、死亡和癌症。当大量存在时，传统的水处理往往无法消除蓝绿藻细胞，导致人类接触。此外，它们产生的毒素在处理过程中也非常稳定，使它们能够不经改变地进入饮用水。琳达·劳顿教授（环境微生物学家- RGU）和彼得·罗伯逊教授（化学工程师- QUB）开创了利用光和简单催化剂（TiO 2催化剂）消除这些问题的创新水处理方法。我们已经成功地证明了6类毒素中的4类毒素的快速有效去除（证据表明剩余的2类，石房蛤毒素和BNAA，将很容易被破坏，因为它们是更简单的化学结构）。此外，我们还证明了同样的处理方法对水中的有害微生物也是有效的。我们在实验室和中试规模上对这项令人兴奋的技术进行了广泛的评估，水务公司对在饮用水供应中全面实施非常感兴趣。一个限制因素是开发了一种简单的策略来暴露和照射与水接触的催化剂，同时确保催化剂可以容易地去除。最有效的破坏已被发现的纳米颗粒催化剂，不能轻易地从水中删除。我们的目标是通过开发和测试令人兴奋的新型光催化处理舱来改变处理水库蓝绿藻污染的方法，这些光催化处理舱由驱动低能量LED的集成浮动太阳能电池板持续供电。John Irvine教授（电化学家-圣安德鲁斯）将带来他在催化剂改性和表征方面的世界领先的专业知识，沿着电优化。博士克莉丝汀爱德华兹（生物技术专家- RGU）沿着教授劳顿领导了生产和检测蓝藻毒素的领域，我们将与巴西的领先科学家合作，那里的水库目前极度枯竭，遭受重大的蓝绿色藻类水华及其相关毒素。这项合作将使我们能够测试我们的新型处理系统在水库中的部署，这些水体一直受到蓝藻污染，并且在具有良好太阳辐射的环境中，以推动非常低的运行成本处理。这项研究完成后，我们将推出一个完全可扩展的该系统将可转让给任何发展中国家或发达国家，以消除危险的蓝绿藻水华、其他病原体和各种有毒污染物。

项目成果

In situ H2O2 treatment of blue-green algae contaminated reservoirs causes significant improvement in drinking water treatability.

• DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.138895
• 发表时间: 2023-05
• 期刊: Chemosphere
• 影响因子: 8.8
• 作者: Maria Aparecida Melo Rocha;Allan Clemente;Allan Amorim Santos;Jessica da Silva Melo;Carlos J. Pestana;Linda A. Lawton;José Capelo-Neto

Degradation of microcystin-LR and cylindrospermopsin by continuous flow UV-A photocatalysis over immobilised TiO2.

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.111368
• 发表时间: 2020-09
• 期刊: Journal of environmental management
• 影响因子: 8.7
• 作者: D. Camacho-Muñoz;Anne-Sophie Fervers;Carlos J. Pestana;C. Edwards;L. Lawton

Influence of bacterial, environmental and physical factors in design of photocatalytic reactors for water disinfection

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jphotochem.2018.04.030
• 发表时间: 2018-11-01
• 期刊: JOURNAL OF PHOTOCHEMISTRY AND PHOTOBIOLOGY A-CHEMISTRY
• 影响因子: 4.3
• 作者: Buck, Caitlin;Skillen, Nathan;Robertson, Jeanette M. C.
• 通讯作者: Robertson, Jeanette M. C.

'All in one' photo-reactor pod containing TiO 2 coated glass beads and LEDs for continuous photocatalytic destruction of cyanotoxins in water

“一体化”光反应器容器包含 TiO 2 涂层玻璃珠和 LED，用于连续光催化破坏水中的蓝藻毒素

• DOI: 10.1039/c9ew00711c
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: Water Research & Technology
• 作者: Gunaratne H

Anatoxin-a degradation by using titanium dioxide.

• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143590
• 发表时间: 2020-11
• 期刊: The Science of the total environment
• 作者: Ariel Kaminski;C. Edwards;E. Chrapusta-Srebrny;L. Lawton