A Cover Article: Heterotopic Formaldehyde Biodegradation through UV/H2O2 System with Biosynthetic H2O2

A research group led by associate professor Nan Li from the School of Environmental Science and Engineering has developed a novel technology in heterotopic formaldehyde biodegradation, and published an article entitled “Heterotopic Formaldehyde Biodegradation through UV/H₂O₂ System with Biosynthetic H₂O₂” as the cover paper in Water Environment Research,an academic journal of the Water Environment Federation (WEF). The first author of this paper is Qian Zhao, a master student from Class 2017 at the School of Environmental Science and Engineering. Associate professor Nan Li is the corresponding author.

As a widely used industrial product, formaldehyde (CH₂O) has been classified as a human carcinogen that may cause nasopharyngeal cancer and leukemia. Professor Nan Li’s team committed to coupling H₂O₂in situ synthesis in BES with UV.

This paper proposed a novel technology of heterotopic formaldehyde biodegradation through the use of a UV/H₂O₂ system with biosynthetic H₂O₂.Instead of exogenous addition, H₂O₂was biosynthesized with an electron transferred from electrochemically active bacteria. It is found that heterotopic biodegradation efficiency and rate of CH₂O were both higher than the biodegradation of CH₂O in situ. Mild hydroxyl radicals (OH) generation through UV/H₂O₂ is beneficial to the sustainable degradation of CH₂O and H₂O₂ utilization. Heterotopic biodegradation is a promising technology for efficient degradation of other organic compounds with biological toxicity.

This research was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

By Nan Li，School of Environmental Science and Engineering

Editors: Eva Yin & Doris Harrington