Abatement of toxicity of effluents containing Cr(VI) by heterogeneous photocatalysis. Toxicity assessment by AMPHITOX assay

摘要

Toxicity of a Cr(VI) solution before and after treatment by TiO2 heterogeneous photocatalysis (HP) was performed with AMPHITOX bioassay. Changes in toxicity on Rhinella arenarum larvae for 10-d were monitored after exposure to an untreated Cr(VI) solution and to the same solution after HP treatment. The HP treatment of a 41.60 mg L-1 Cr(VI) solution reduced to 37.5% the concentration of the metal ion. A 10-fold reduction in toxicity at acute exposure (72 h) and 150-fold reduction in toxicity after 240 h was found. Further, the LOEC value increased from 0.001% for the untreated solution to 0.153% after HP treatment. Moreover, the safe concentration in untreated solution corresponded to 0.0001% sample, and it was 0.01% after the treatment, i.e., 100 times higher. A saving of water of about 100,000 L per L of effluent would be possible through dilution to allow safer concentrations for discharge; the saving would reach the highest value (1,000,000 L per L) at 240 h. Sub-lethal effects were completely absent in larvae exposed to the treated solution. The AMPHITOX test allowed to detect chronic effects at low Cr concentrations, i.e. at environmentally relevant levels. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.