The degradation of off-flavors which is 2-Methylisoborneol (2-MIB) and geosmin by means of ultrasound (US) and pulsed ultraviolet (PUV) irradiation and its combination with catalyst (wire mesh, wire mesh coated TiO₂, and TiO₂) and additive (H₂O₂) were investigated via water system. A combination treatment of TiO₂ and H₂O₂ heterogeneity with US (24 kHz) and PUV (6000 W) has shown improved results in destroying 2-MIB and geosmin, which may be attributed to chain reactions by the enhanced formation of hydroxyl radicals (·OH) through H₂O₂ dissociation and reactive oxide ions of TiO₂ addition. Rapid degradation of off-flavors occurred within 2 min under PUV process with H₂O₂ 100 mg/L (81.5% for 2- MIB; 79.3% for geosmin) and TiO₂ 100 mg/L (83.7% for 2-MIB; 79.8% for geosmin), while compared with H2O2 100 mg/L (58.4% for 2-MIB; 58.0% for geosmin) and TiO₂ 100 mg/L (59.2% for 2-MIB; 38.5% for geosmin) within 5 min under US process. Surprisingly, the emphasis was given on the comparison with the same injected energies between PUV and US on degradation efficiency. Based on the injected energy comparison, the US provided better degradation performance under equal input power of 200 kJ with H₂O₂ 100 mg/L, while compared with H₂O₂ 100 mg/L under PUV process. Our findings suggest that US can be more effective compared to PUV for the degradation of off-flavors in aspect of energy consumptions.

Keywords: 2-Methylisoborneol;Geosmin;Catalyst;Pulsed ultraviolet;Ultrasound;